


Triskelea

by Mikaiyawa



Series: Triskela [1]
Category: Lovex, Panik, The 69 Eyes
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Historical, F/M, M/M, Vikings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-07-14
Updated: 2010-07-14
Packaged: 2017-10-10 13:39:16
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 3
Words: 65,243
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/100368
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mikaiyawa/pseuds/Mikaiyawa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alternate Universe where the members of Lovex are Vikings, raiding for goods wives and children.  But what if Sami's 'wife' isn't all she seems?</p><p>for reference Atti is Christian</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Triskelea

Mira squinted up at the sun; it was verging on noon and soon all the novices would be moving into the coolness of the chapter house garden for devotions and lessons.  He sighed and went back to hauling water out the well and into the kitchen.  Today Cook was putting up berries and that took a lot of water to clean everything properly.  And more than likely the novices would be out berrying again this afternoon after devotionals.

It was also the regular weekly wash day, and that took a great deal of water as well. Not that he'd ever complain about clean linens.  He was just glad Cherie was only hanging up wash, she'd been ill a few days ago and wasn't really up to hauling water, their Elders might sigh, but they wouldn't scold so long as all the chores got done.

Mira kept moving from well to kitchen cistern and back again, filling the cistern and the hot water boilers bucketful by bucketful.  He sighed and was grateful Amie had braided his hair up this morning for him.  If he did it, it would gradually ravel out around his face and the clasp at the nape of his neck would slip.

Just one of a dozen things that made their senior priestess, a woman everyone called Mother, shake her head and sigh over him.  And he was rather tired of hearing his elders sigh and lament 'if only you were a girl', he wasn't and no amount of lamenting would change things.

He was bending to draw water again when he heard the first shriek.  Barely a breath later and he felt strong arms wrapping around his waist and hauling him away from the well.

The sound that escaped him was halfway between a scream and an indignant yell and he was struggling to escape.  His heart dropped when he was swung around again and saw the mix of near black hair and blond peeking from under the war helms of the armored men cheerfully looting their way through the storehouses.  They hadn't set anything on fire, at least not yet.

Vikings.

Mira managed to land a few hard kicks to her captor’s shins and bit one wrist hard enough to make him yelp and loosen his hold just enough for him to escape and reach the carry yoke he'd been hauling water with and swing it around as a club.  The yoke wasn't designed for such use and it broke after the first hit, but that had knocked the wind out of his attacker, knocked his helm all but off and let Mira get his hands on the half filled bucket of water.

The raider's blue eyes widened as Mira swung the bucket at his head, and somehow managed to duck and grab in such a way that Mira's elbow hit his jaw but the bucket missed his head.  Then he had his arms tight around Mira's waist again, and this time he had Mira's arms as well.

Mira didn't waste his breath screaming or cursing, he saved his breath for fighting, trying to wriggle his way free of arms as strong as iron bands.  He struggled and kicked and tried to make every step the raider took a hard fought one.

But then he saw Cherie kicking, screaming and struggling in the arms of another raider.  She'd fought enough to set her captor's helm askew on his blond head but like Mira's raider he wasn't letting go of his prize.  But her raider had had the forethought to wrap Cherie in the bed linens she'd been hanging and tie her securely before he'd slung her over his shoulder to carry off, so his friend was nearly helpless.

Mira hissed and tried biting the arm that came near her face, tried hitting the hip behind his fists, elbowing the ribs behind him and raked the heels of his hard leather shoes down the shins of the man dragging him steadily toward a boat with a carved dragon head on its great prow.

It was all futile, his captor was both taller and broader than he was, and far, far stronger.

When Cherie's screams and curses stopped his heart dropped.  What had they done to his friend?  He let out a small sob when he saw Amie's distinctive braid of dark hair laid over the shoulder of another raider being carried below the deck.  How many junior sisters were these monsters going to carry off?

Mira tried even harder to escape when he saw a man un-helmed and in leather armor come up with a pottery bottle in his hand.  He tried to bite, but the dark haired man got his fist around Mira's braid and held his head still as he forced a mouthful of bitter liquid into his mouth. 

The first got spat back in his face.  And that seemed to amuse him; the second Mira's captor slapped one of his big hands over his mouth and nose.  He had no choice but to swallow or risk drowning on the potion.  One that tasted like the one Nurse used to put hysterical girls to sleep, or very sick girls who were being foolish and refusing to rest.

He fought as hard as he could to keep awake.  But even the feel of heavy shackles on his wrists didn't help.  He was vaguely aware of being carried and laid down on something soft and covered, and of the feel of oddly gentle fingers stroking his cheek and hair. But then the world slid away like so much dry sand through his fingers.

~0~

Atti washed his face off quickly and turned to treating the minor injuries from their raid.  Juha had twisted an ankle and been carried back, protesting loudly the whole way, by his shield brother Petri.  With Juha safe he'd gone back and raided them a nice pile of thick and soft woolen blankets, some fine sheets off a drying line and a few sacks of grain.

Lauri had some bruises but more from tripping as he tried to sneak his sleeping prize back to the boat unseen.  He’d have been better off to just risk his prize waking and bee-lined back.  Fortunately nothing broke the skin so it was a simple matter to poultice the bruises and move on.

Julian had a scalding on his side where one of the more impudent of the Cook's helpers had thrown a pot of _very_ hot water at him. Yu had dumped his partner into the cistern and that had helped minimize the damage to a thin, irregular line down Julian's side where his armor overlapped.  At least it was mostly leather, and would survive the ducking with relatively little damage.  If it had been Petri's chain and plate mix he'd have been days getting the rust and scale off.

Yu had made sure of make off with several baskets full of sealed jars, sacks of fresh baked breads and a basket of fresh berries just for spite.  They had no idea what was in the jars, but they'd find out soon enough.

Sami had gone back after a few loads of other loots and found a locked storeroom and taken a few unmarked bales and caskets.  Once they were safely at sea he'd see what he'd found.  But Sami was more interested in the pale haired girl he had sleeping a drugged sleep shackled to his bunk.

Torstig was interested in his little spitfire as well, but Atti suspected the instant she woke she'd be kicking and biting again as Toro tried to charm her.

Sometimes Torstig had all the sense of a very small and very spoiled child, and Skald or not Atti felt Toro was going to get a whipping before all this was over.

Atti lifted his head and listened to the calls from above. Iason was calling the headcount to the captains.  They'd be underway soon, as only Jussi was off the count. More than likely he was only a step or two away, and would be tossing one last armful of loot into the boat and clambering aboard at any moment.

As soon as he thought that he felt the ship move, heard Lauri singing to power the spells and heard Jyrki scolding Jussi for being foolish as the younger man cackled in glee.

They'd be safe in the deep sea soon.

~0~

Sami squinted up into the sun and breathed deeply of the salt air that blew into his face.  The Dragons were moving swiftly through the water and soon would carry them and their bounty home.  He glanced down at where Lauri was seated just behind the prow and had to smile.  Their war band was lucky.  They had Torstig as a Skald, Julian who was blessed by Freyr to be able to read anything and speak to anyone they met and they had Lauri, blessed Raven Skald of Othar and his clever clutch of birds.  Having one Skald to power the spells that moved the Dragons on and off shore was gift enough, but with _two_ they could speed the journey home and not over tire either.  And that was without tapping the powers of all the men with lesser ship bound talents.  Uther's grandfather had decreed any man with such talents was to spread his seed far and wide in hopes of breeding more.  It had worked fairly well; a fifth of the Holding had some talent for ships, even if it was only for the tiny fishing skiffs that plied their lakes.  And that was if you only counted the boys.  One of Sami's sisters and both of Torstig's could sing a small boat into motion.

Of course just now Julian was with Risto and they were both laughing themselves silly as Torstig's silver tongue failed him.  The battle bride he'd grabbed was being less than cooperative and had already landed at least one solid kick in his most tender male parts. Proof, not that it was needed, that the girl was Torstig's match; she was completely immune to his Skald powers.  Lauri's wasn't being much more cooperative, but at least she had refrained from attempting to lodge his testicles in his throat.  Right now she was in Lauri's bunk sleeping off another dose of Atti's sleeping draught.

But maybe that was just because Lauri had swept up from behind his sleeping prize and spirited her away to the boat rather than tackling her and binding her before throwing her over his shoulder like a sack of grain. Women could be funny that way, as Risto would happily tell you.

Then again he would know, he'd gotten his war bride a year and a bit ago and was now looking forward to the birth of his first child.  And Elsa was _not_ the retiring sort they'd expected when raiding a holding of the followers of the White Christ.

She'd about bashed Risto's head in with a pot.  If he hadn't been helmed he'd have been stunned by more than her spirit.

Then it had been Torstig laughing himself silly, but Risto had tried the shy little smile that had gotten him under the skirts of a fair number of Holding girls.  That had distracted her long enough for him to get the pot away from her and to try whispering sweet things in her ear.  It hadn't worked, but it had let him get a good grip on her so he could carry her, kicking and screaming the whole way, back to the boat.  It had taken Atti at his sneakiest to get the sleeping draught into her and her safely stowed below with the rest of their riches.

This time three of them had found girls who called to them.  Sami had to smile at the thought of the slim prize he had hidden below.  He'd seen her getting water from the Holding's well, dressed as all the women of this Mon-is-ta-ree were in loose trousers and unadorned gray knee length tunics.  It wasn't a holding of the White Christ this time; they all wore black, but some other soft Southern God trying to move into the Storm Lords territory.

The women were beautiful, even the older ones were trim hipped and strong with long hair tied up in single long braids bound with heavy rings of finely worked silver.  And it had been rich in more than beautiful women; they'd had generous stores of textiles, grain and luxuries like sweets and brandy wine.  He'd looted away a large casket filled with hard cones of good white and golden sugars and another smaller one of the sweet called Turkish delight so fresh it was still soft and slightly sticky, that had been divided among the war band with great glee.  The sugar he'd gift to his mother and would be spread around the Holding by her generosity.

Lauri's prize had been a steady eyed brunette with a sweet soft face and large exotic eyes.  Torstig's had soft faintly red tinged golden hair, pretty sky blue eyes and curves that promised pleasure, but a fierce spirit that would have been better shown by hair the color of blood.  Sami smiled when he heard Torstig yelp again in pain.  They'd been letting their prizes wake to eat, drink and tend to their bodies needs.  And so far Torstig's had been taking every opportunity to vent her irritation on him with sharply pointed elbows and well placed kicks.  Atti had wryly remarked that his brother's catch had the grace of a dancer, and the kick of an angry mule, but he'd had to get Lauri's help to poultice a bruise across his kidneys that she'd given him when he'd tried to help his brother corral her again when she'd managed to slip the catch that held her shackles to the bunk.

“He'd be better served to let her be a while.” Lauri's mild observation made Sami grin.

“When has Toro ever let things be when he can rile them up?”  Iason asked mildly as he turned his face to the sun.

“Never,” laughed Lauri as he stroked the feathers of the great raven he held cradled in his arms.  He'd indulged his need to touch his prize by cuddling up behind her as she slept and been very careful of her temper while she was awake.  His care and the fact he had been there every time she woke with water or tea and mild foods had so far kept her from being as out of temper as Torstig's catch.

Sami smiled again and like his brother lifted his face to the sun.

He had a prize, a prize with large eyes the color of moss and hair as silver as the rings that bound it.  A prize that was as slender and trim as a boy, fair to look on but was clearly quite strong and no stranger to hard work.  Sami rubbed at the mark his treasure had raised on his jaw with her elbow and winced a little as the matching ones on his ribs reminded him that they had yet to be treated by Atti's smelly pastes.  And after two days of dodging he was running out of excuses to avoid treatment.

As if the thought had summoned the Healer, Atti poked his head above deck and squinted about in the bright light until they rested on him, then they narrowed in a way Sami was all too familiar with.

With a reluctant sigh he turned from the bow and walked easily over the rolling deck to climb down the steep ladder into the hold below.

“Yours is still sleeping.  So lose the tunic Sami, I saw her land some good hard hits on you.”

Sami winced.  He was rather glad his little one wasn't a man, and hadn't been armed with anything more dangerous than a yoke and pails to carry water.  As it was she'd landed one solid hit to his side with the carry yoke and blow to the face with her elbow when she'd missed clubbing him with a bucket.  No man could say she'd come quietly and several of the war band had already begun making bets about the tempers of any children his prize and Torstig's would produce.

He didn't try arguing he wasn't injured though, Atti would see right through it and his treatment would hurt worse if he tried to lie.  That and Wulf had already banned him from tiller duty because of the mark on his side. So Sami stripped off his tunics and let Atti tisk over the large mark marring his left side.

Sami hissed a little as Atti prodded the marks to see if he had cracked ribs under them, but after a few moments seemed satisfied he didn't.  Sami let out a soft huff of relief when Atti's hands left him and quietly thanked all the gods that they had a true healer in their number.

“Hunh,” Atti grunted as he smeared a bit of the smelly greenish paste that helped bruises and broken bones to heal faster on a bit of linen bandage. Sami hissed a little to have even gentle hands winding bandages around his tender side but knew Atti's strongest magic was in his preparations and that in a day or so the ugly black bruising would be faded to yellowish green.  A week of healing beat a month and Sami was no fool, even if he was stubborn and occasionally the idiot his brothers called him.

“I'm surprised she didn't bite you.”  Atti continued as he wound the bandage around Sami's chest.

“Ah, she tried.” Sami said, flushing at the thought that he'd need to explain those so distinct marks on his leather bracers to his father.  Battle brides were a bit different than friendly raids between Holdings, there the girls only put up a token resistance and their fathers and brothers tended to mill about and yell rather than truly try and fight back.  He had fond memories of helping his younger sister get stolen by the man she loved.  Mikko had repaid the favor by naming their firstborn son after Sami.  Battle brides tended to not be anything like willing for one, even if rape was the last thing on their kidnappers minds.

Well, rape might be the last thing on their minds, but sex was near the first.  It just took some gentle persuasion, and a lot of bruises would be collected before the girls consented.  At least Risto's Elsa had graced him with numerous bruises until Risto had gotten between a rabid and starving wolf and her.  He'd been very lucky that none of the tainted saliva had touched him when he'd put the poor thing out of its pain.  The spell Atti had to pull that poison out of a man was a miserable ten day experience that left the man weak as a babe for a month afterwards.  But it did work, and had saved a few men's lives.  And to a man they'd say being weak in the care of your women for a month beat waiting for them in Othar's Hall.

“Where else did your little dagger get you?”

“Shins mostly, she has hard soles on her shoes.”

Atti laughed as Sami dropped his trousers so he could dose the blackened bumps Sami's prize had raised on his shins with her determined kicking.

“How is Toro holding up?”

Atti snickered, but Torstig had been Atti's battle brother almost since they could walk.

“Coping, but his little one isn't letting him forget any insult he's done her. Or that she's imagined he's done her.  For a lot of religious women these girls have spirit.”

Sami smiled as he pulled his trousers back up.

“And the more she kicks, claws and fights the more he wants her.  And he hasn't the sense to try cuddling her in her sleep and letting her be when she's awake. Or even singing away her pain like Lauri has been doing for his.”

Atti grinned and nodded.

“Never let it be said my brother does things the easy way.  Not that you have much room to talk, your treasure fought just as much, just with less shrieking of insults.”  Atti stopped and looked over at the slim pale shape laid over Sami's berth and covered over in stolen blankets.  “In fact, I haven't heard her say a word. She just gets between us and her sisters if they are all awake and glares daggers with those pretty eyes of hers.  I think I'm glad Uther and Wulf insisted all our prizes be shackled.  If she were free she might just strangle you in your sleep if the glares she gives you when awake are anything to go by.”

Sami shrugged; he'd heard a single shriek out of his prize. But that had been right as he caught her in his arms that first time.  And her cry hadn't been of fear; it had been anger and indignation.  He picked up his tunic and walked with a bit more care for the roll of the boat over to his bunk and reached down to stroke a wisp of fair hair away from that narrow face.

She wasn't exactly pretty, not like Lauri and Torstig's prizes were. Their stolen women were breathtaking in their beauty.  His prize's face was oval, with a sharp chin and high cheekbones. Her forehead was a bit too broad for beauty and her nose too sharp, but her lips were full and soft and her eyes large and evenly spaced.  Awake they were the darkest shade of green he'd ever seen in a woman.

But he'd seen her, and he'd wanted her, wanted her so much that all the carefully laid tactics and planning of the raid had flown from his mind and he'd had to have her, have her in his arms.

Now he understood why Risto had gone charging into a kitchen filled with all sorts of things that a clever person could turn to their own defense.  He'd seen Elsa and everything else had faded to nothing under the need to have her in his arms.  Even having her try and brain him with a pot hadn't slowed him down.

Someday it was going to grab Iason and Atti and Sami was going to laugh himself sick.  Julian already had a lover.  And shocking though it was he'd managed to lure one of the fierce warriors of the Picti into his bed a little before the raid that had collected Risto and Jukka their spouses.  Yu had followed them back to camp after a raid on a village near his.  His initial intent had been to murder as many of them in their bedrolls as possible. 

Understandable enough, he was a warrior and they were his enemy.  Even if the village they'd raided hadn't exactly been friends of his people.

But he'd laid eyes on Julian first and been captivated.

Julian had looked up, ready to sound the alarm and been frozen in place, caught by a pair of soft silver gray eyes framed by blue paint.

The camp had been awakened by Julian's cries of pleasure as Yu had taken him for the first time. And that had thrown several of them for more than a loop.  But seeing a man over one of their brothers clad in nothing but his spiky black hair and a lot of blue paint was enough to set anyone back on their heels.  If Julian had been gasping and screaming anything but 'yes, yes there, harder' in several languages and at the top of his lungs Yu would have been gutted on the spot.

But when the gods decreed a match, men were wise to just nod and go along with things, even if the pairing was a bit unconventional.  Stirring up a fight tended to get one rather messily dead as the gods had a habit of protecting their chosen pairs against idiots.  Yu was very protective of Julian, and no one was quite sure of what skills the quiet Picti had. He'd demonstrated a skill at skulking that was unmatched just by getting aboard the same Dragon as Julian with all his personal goods with none of them the wiser.  Jyrki still didn't know how the man had managed the trick.  Just that when Julian had gone down to his bunk Yu was sitting in it waiting for him.  After Julian had found him all war band knew about it, first from Torstig's yelp and yelling, then from a repeat of Julian's screams of pleasure as Yu staked his claim again.

Sami yelped at the feel of teeth sinking into his hand and back-pedaled as his prize tried to lunge out of the bunk to try and brain him with her shackles.

Part of his mind was happy his treasure didn't get seasick; another part wished she hadn't been so quick to find her footing.




“Sami?”  Atti was by his side in an instant.  And Sami noticed Atti was smart enough to keep Sami's body between himself and the angry girl.

“She bit me.” His eyes widened and he tried to move back a bit more as he realized what she was planning.  Luckily for him the boat rolled and spoiled her kick and had her scrambling for her footing again.  If it hadn't he'd have been clutching himself in agony and unable to get away from further insults.  She struggled to get to her feet again and glared daggers of impotent rage at him, and Sami was caught by her eyes.

Atti chuckled and reached for the bottle that held a good lot of his sleeping draught already mixed and ready.

“Ah, trust you to get a girl who should be a red head.  Hold her for me so I can dose her again.”

“**Again**? **_Already_**?” Sami spluttered as he moved to catch his prize in his arms, she'd only been dosed again this morning.  This time when he reached for her he was careful to not leave his arms where she could bite them and made sure he had her arms tight to her sides so she couldn't hurt Atti with her shackled hands. She'd mostly confined her ire to him, but as frustrated as she was there was no telling what she might do. Sami couldn't stop the whimper that escaped when she rubbed her pert little bottom against his groin in her struggles. She wasn't raking her heels down his shins this time, but her bare feet wouldn't do nearly the damage her hard shoes had.  He buried his face in her shoulder and whimpered again as she fought.  What would it feel like to have her willing?  He groaned as she shoved back into him and before he could stop himself whispered a little plea into her ear.  He was so hard already that he was liable to pop in his trousers.

She stilled, turned and gave him an incredulous look and Atti used that moment of stillness to get at least a partial dose of his potion into her.  Sami held her as it took effect and once she was limp again let Atti make sure she had a good dose in her and laid her gently back in his berth.

Atti grabbed his bleeding hand and checked it over, and after swearing a bit and digging in his herb bag he started binding up yet another wound.

“Sami this girl may well be the death of you.  She throws off my potions very fast.”

Sami suddenly smiled, as the girl's face frozen in startlement came back before his mind’s eye.

“But what a way to go.”

~0~

Sami sighed and stared wistfully after Lauri and his Amie.  A bit of charm and gentle consideration and Lauri was getting closer to having his war bride actually let him have her.  He'd led her up on deck and wrapped her in the soft fur lined cloak he'd gotten gifted him this past midwinter and had brought her mint tea in his own cup to help settle her unhappy stomach.  She still didn't trust him, but when they'd reached the Holding and he'd tucked her into his own bed and slept on the floor beside it she'd begun warming a little.  Now he was able to sleep cuddled up behind her and not fear being dumped from his furs.

Torstig's Cherie was still hitting him and yelling about half the time, but now she wasn't aiming to hurt nearly as often and at night wasn't dumping him out of his furs more than one night in four.  Sami expected the pair would always be somewhat tumultuous but they were getting to where it looked like they were less fighting and more discussing loudly.

Risto had fingered the wolf heads on the torc around his neck and commented that if she weren't bound to the Holding she might well have run off alone into the wilds and be damned the consequences.




As it was she'd scalded him with hot water, burned him with lye and tried to poison him.  Fortunately her 'poison' of choice was local mushrooms and something Atti knew very well how to deal with as every spring and fall several of the Holding's children would fall prey to the prettily colored fungi and become ill.  Never more than once though, the treatment was pretty nasty as Sami was becoming all too familiar with.  The magic to purge the poison let him retching and nauseous for days.

If it kept up Atti was pretty sure he'd end up immune to the blasted things, just from repeated exposure.  But Sami wasn't sure he wanted that immunity.

He'd tried gifts; he'd tried gentle words and the wooing that was working for Torstig and Lauri.  The best he got was a cold green eyed glare; usually he wound up getting 'accidentally' doused with something.  If Mira had her way it was something noxious, Sami had already learned not to go near her if she was doing washing.  He'd ended up in the creek and the fishpond several times already learning that lesson.  He was sure if the torc around her neck would have allowed for it she'd have drowned him, but the spells sung into the pieces ensured that battle brides couldn't actually _kill_ anyone in their new Holding.  As time went on the magic’s would fade and leave the jewelry as a simple mark of their marriage.  Until then though they were needed to keep their feisty captives safe, and to keep them safe from their captives.

It didn't help the longing, he needed to touch her and the fact she refused to let him sleep in the same bed was driving him out of his mind with need.  He'd tried creeping in after she fell asleep and been dumped out a dozen times for every hour of rest he got and once had the contents of the chamber pot dumped over his head to add insult to injury. He'd already gone into Iriet's grove and made offering after offering of his own seed as the need gnawed his bones.

He needed her, wanted her and hadn't the foggiest idea of how to get her to accept him into her arms and bed.  He couldn't get her to let him hold her for more than a few minutes at best before she woke and shoved him out of his own bed.

Other young unpaired men in the war band found it funny, at least until they tried wooing the girl themselves and discovered bound by magic or not she was more than able to make their lives uncomfortable.

Petri had tried ordering her to make a new mattress for him, with full intent of having her on it and learned that she was more than determined enough to stuff the thing with stinging nettles and let him deal with the results.  He'd tried tumbling her onto it and she'd shifted so he fell full force into the stinging prickles on his back.  His shield brother had been smarter and tried wooing her with song only to get a tub of dirty wash water dumped over his head and told to be silent as he was frightening the birds.  That alone probably wouldn't have deterred Juha, but she'd reinforced the words by beating the copper tub with a spoon while it was still over Juha's head.  The clanging had attracted the attention of most of the Holding and given Juha a beastly headache.  After that the two men had declared that Sami was welcome to the little hellion.

The rest of the war band had gotten a good laugh and mostly left Mira alone.

Atti had discovered she had a knack with vipers after he'd dumped three of the things out of his boots in the morning.  They were now carefully kept in a pen of wire mesh and milked for their poison by Julian's quiet mate, Yu.  Risto just snickered at him and told him persistence would get him what he wanted but Elsa just rolled her pretty eyes and made comments about snow falling in colors before that happened unless something changed rather drastically.

The older men just watched and told amusing tales of other men who'd war brides had been resistant at first. But that was other men, and in the end they got their prizes.  Right now Sami wasn't sure he wasn't going to break his dick off with all the offerings he was giving up to the goddess.

And that was the men.  The women found his suffering amusing as well, and more than one Holding girl had offered her services as bed mate and Sami had found he couldn't touch another woman without the need for Mira rising up and choking him.  He was having trouble focusing, barely sleeping and eating only when someone reminded him, and then only a few bites.

It took his mother sniffing at him and telling him to go bathe, he smelled like a boar to get him up and moving from where he had been slumped in misery just staring into the fire.

If only to escape the humiliation of having his mother grab him by his ear and drag him down to the creek to scrub him herself got him up to go bathe and shave.  Sami rummaged out a change of clothes, a length of cloth to dry himself with, his comb, razor, steel mirror and soap and trudged down to the bend in the creek that most of the men used to bathe in summer.

Well almost everyone in the Holding bathed in these little hidden spots, at least in summer.  In winter they'd cut a hole in the ice and after sauna would jump in and cool off.  The men would sauna together and the women and children would sauna without their men.  For men who were mated to other men, well, sometimes they'd build a small sauna off away from everyone else and sauna together where they could play, otherwise they'd just sauna with the rest of the male population and keep the play for their bed.

Sami dropped his supplies and went down to the water’s edge and froze.

Mira was there, her pale hair unbound and hanging past her hips as she washed.  Sami stared in mute longing, then blinked in confusion as Mira turned.

He'd known Mira was slim as a boy, but now, with no soft layers of linen and wool obscuring his view he realized Mira had the smooth and flat chest of a boy.

Sami gulped and his eyes roved down over soft pale skin and rested on sharp hipbones, the parts he wanted to see hidden by the water.

He stripped as fast as he could and was staggering into the creek to get closer. He needed to get closer, needed to touch.

Bare skin to bare skin was paradise and Sami whimpered as his hands stroked up Mira's back and pulled her close.

No, not her.  Sami could feel another cock bushing his thigh even as Mira let out a little cry of indignation and pushed at his shoulders.

But he didn't knee Sami in the groin, so Sami pressed on.

He was faintly aware that he was backing Mira back toward shore and its dense layer of moss, and struggling or not he bore Mira down to the ground.  It felt so good to touch, to feel his chosen touching back.  Sami knew he was pleading as he trailed kisses over any bit of skin he could get to.  Right now his pride could go hang, he needed this.

Sami nuzzled the soft skin behind Mira's ear, trailed down his slim neck and sucked hard to leave a mark on his collar bone.  Then he moved down to ravage nipples and make Mira arch up and gasp.  Then Mira's hands weren't trying to push him away, they were tangling in his hair and tugging down.

So Sami moved down, he left another mark on the inside of one sharp hipbone and slid lower.  When Sami got down far enough he could smell Mira's arousal and whimpered as he stroked his cheek over that erect cock.  That earned him a little hiss and a sharp tug on his hair.

“Prickles.”

Sami smiled, that wasn't an order to stop, so he turned his face and licked up the slim length.

The cry that earned didn't sound at all like a no or a stop, it sounded pleased so Sami shifted and swallowed Mira down.

That got his hair pulled harder, but Mira seemed to like what he was doing, at least he wasn't trying to escape, he was rocking his hips up toward Sammy's mouth.  He was rocking up enough that Sami had to grab his hips to keep from choking.  But the thought that he could make Mira needy enough to forget his animosity and writhe under him in pleasure made him crazy.

Mira screamed and Sami spluttered on the seed that filled his mouth, but he was swallowing, and lapping at each spilled droplet until Mira squirmed under him and pulled at his hair. Sami followed the tugging up until they were nose to nose.

Sami was just turning back to kiss Mira again when he got shoved hard.




“You aren't kissing me again until you shave those prickles off.”

Sami gaped and gave Mira the opening to shove harder and set him on his backside in the water. He yelped, spluttered and then started laughing.  A moment later and he was collecting his razor and soap and settling down with his bit of polished steel to remove the whiskers Mira objected to.

He wanted kisses after all.

~0~

Iason was getting a bit concerned.  Sami hadn't been seen at noon meal, and when questioned his mother only shrugged and told him she'd sent her boy off for a bath. 

Torstig had finally gotten Cherie to let him touch her and was busily making up for lost time.  He might not be getting more than kisses and gentle touches, but he was completely focused on those kisses and cuddling as much as his Cherie would allow him to get. 

Lauri's girl was still leading him on a merry and playful chase, but now Iason was left with the feeling that it was more a game and that Lauri was enjoying chasing and catching her. Then again she had been the first to set the torc that matched hers around Lauri's neck.  And had set the man to waking everyone in the longhouse every morning with her cries of pleasure.

Sami's girl though, she had been making his life rather uncomfortable, and Iason wasn't convinced that she wouldn't figure out a way to drown Sami if she was given the chance.

So he started checking bathing spots.  He found Risto with Elsa in one, with him cuddling her from behind and stroking his hands over her now flat stomach.  Iason kept going; he had no real desire to see Risto fondling his wife into raptures since he wasn't allowed inside her yet after the birth of their daughter.

He found several other pairs taking advantage of the clear weather to play together in the water.  Iason rolled his eyes at Jukka playing with his little prize.  But Jonne had been just as smitten as Jukka had been at first sight and come away from the enclave of the White Christ his father had left him in quite willingly.  Iason would never understand why those idiots thought men’s loving each other was a bad thing.  Love was love, or the gods wouldn't have made the pull so strong between them.

But they weren’t who he was looking for.  And he was very sure he didn't want to watch Jonne shaving every scrap of body hair off Jukka.  Just the idea of a razor near those parts gave him the shudders.  And it didn't matter how many times Jukka said it was a huge turn on to have Jonne breathing over his balls then running sharp steel across the skin without hurting him.  He still wasn't letting anything sharp near his bits.

The next pair he found had him rocking back on his heels.

He'd found Sami, bathed, clean shaven and soundly asleep.

That wasn't what had thrown him.

Not even seeing his brother naked made him blink; they saw each other in only their skins far too often for that to raise any eyebrows.

What threw him was the mass of silver hair drying on the moss beside Sami, the head that fall of hair was attached to was resting securely on Sami's shoulder.

Iason blinked.

The picture didn't really change.

Mira was cuddled into Sami's side and Sami had an arm wound protectively around his slim waist.

Wait.  His?  Iason looked again, treading carefully as he walked around to look more carefully.

Mira was male, long hair and soft cheeks aside, Mira was clearly male from the flaccid cock resting on Sami's thigh, just touching Sami's own relaxed penis.  Iason gulped.

No wonder Sami had been having fits getting Mira to let him get close.

Iason sat down hard on the mossy bank and just stared as he tried to get his mind around everything.

He gaped as Sami stirred and with a smile that bespoke sleepy contentment rolled over to pin Mira to the ground and start nuzzling into his neck with the clear intent of indulging in a bit more play.  Rather the other end of the sword from how Sami had been acting only a few hours ago.

Iason gulped and before he could stop himself blurted out.

“Oil, you'll need oil.”

Sami jumped like a scalded cat and spun to put Mira safely behind him but then saw Iason and knelt in the moss and pouted.  Iason was quietly grateful Sami hadn't had anything handy to throw, or he'd have been ducking or getting hit with whatever Sami had thrown.

“Iason!”

Iason blushed.

“Sorry, you were missing and your mother just said she'd sent you to bathe, and,” Iason had to force himself to stop babbling and after a few deep breaths blurted out the question that really was driving him crazy.  “How come she's a he? And why was he in a place with only women?”

Mira just shot him a look and rose to dress without answering. Iason boggled a bit, Mira was graceful enough to be a woman.

Sami just smiled the small, slightly crooked smile he got when he hadn't the slightest idea and really didn't much care.

Iason groaned.

~0~

Mira still didn't let Sami too close when there were people about, but Sami had lost that desperate and needy lovesick look.  He looked calm again and much more like his usual self. Risto noticed the change right off, but only because he was the first to the cook pot Sami's mother tended and thus got the first look.

Lauri haruphed and grumbled, but anyone who knew him could see the happy gleam in his eyes as he shared his portion of stewed mutton with one of his ravens.  It took Torstig the better part of a week to notice the change, and he only noticed because Cherie squealed in delight at something Mira told her while the two were off with Amie doing a bit of gathering of the summer berries and herbs.

Torstig had been playing at watching them when Cherie had squealed and clapped her hands.  His look of utter confusion had gotten him soundly laughed at by both women and given an amused look by Mira.  A pout and a plaint of being nothing more than a southern jester to amuse her got Cherie near enough that Torstig could pounce and squirrel his hands up under Cherie's tunics and start a bit of fun.

Of course the fates decided that was the perfect time for a lone raider to try his luck.  Raiders, outlaws and wild beasts were the real reason warriors were to go out with any gathering party.  Every now and again things got ugly between Holdings and the friendly raiding of single women for wives turned darker.  But normally it was just outlaws and outsiders being idiots.

Torstig barely got Cherie safely out of the way before he was dodging blows from a cudgel and was distracted enough in trying to not get himself killed and keep the raider's attention that he didn't notice Mira pulling something out of her gathering basket.  His intent was to keep the raider distracted while the women ran back to the Holding; it was near enough that help wouldn't be long in coming. 

But none of them ran.

It was hard to miss how the man's head snapped forward and how his body dropped like a stone.

Torstig gaped at the strip of cloth Mira was coiling back up in her hands.

“What sorcery?” he started only to be given a look that would curdle fresh milk.

“A sling, I'm not an idiot.”

Torstig gaped for a moment.

“Then why are you carrying a sling and not a bow?” He was only slightly distracted by Cherie coming up to make sure he had no injuries worse than the bruising of his dignity.  At any other time he'd have gleefully pounced the small woman, but now his curiosity was roused.

“A sling I can hide.  As you and all your shepherd boys know.  And there are always stones.”  A shrug and she went back to gathering late berries, leaving Torstig to deal with the fallen raider.

~0~

The raider was outlawed for kin slaying, and Mira had only stunned the fool by slinging a fallen acorn at his head rather than killing him as she easily could have with a stone.  There had been a fair bit of discussion in the Holding before they decided what exactly to do with the man.

In the arguments over whether it would be better to kill him outright or send him back to his own Holding for them to deal with no one remembered the fact small fact that he'd been brought down by a girl using a boy's weapon.

~0~

“So, how is it a girl from a soft temple can sling as well as a boy?”

Mira huffed under his breath.  Torstig wasn't going to let it go, even with Cherie doing her level best to distract him, which being fair she was doing, just not well enough to stop the wretched man's rabbit-like curiosity.

“I'm curious as to how a man ends up in an enclave filled with women myself,” came Iason's voice from the tree line.  “And why it is he's a soft cheeked as a woman when clearly he's well grown.”

“Perhaps you've drunk too much and have been seeing spirits,” Mira gritted out between his teeth.  He'd known that letting Sami touch him would bring trouble, but he'd been unable to resist the pleas and touches.  And Sami's touches had been gentle and incredibly sweet once the initial urgency was gone.  Amie and Cherie thought he was being awfully sweet, in spite of how he'd been involved with kidnapping them.  Torstig and Lauri's care of them was helping get them past the way they'd been snatched up without so much as a by your leave.

“I don't think so,” observed Lauri softly.  “I'm rather curious myself, given Hwurr tells me you creep out every night of the full moon to make offerings in Iriet's grove.”  Lauri held out an arm to let the great raven land.  The other two that habitually stayed with the Skald landed on branches above his head.

“Goddess spare me the maunderings of inobservant men, who think with their swords and spears and not their heads,” Mira gritted out.  He really didn't want to discuss this; it was bad enough with only Amie, Cherie and Freyja knowing the full extent of the shameful story.  Amie and Cherie at least he'd grown up with. Then he felt a familiar pair of hands on his shoulders, moving around to just hold him gently.

“I would like to know, but,” Mira felt Sami's shrug.  At least he was giving him the option to tell them all to shove their heads in a boiling pot of oil.  The next bit was whispered directly in his ear and made Mira's face flame in reaction. “And I rather thought you liked my spear.”

~0~

After a bit of pleading, and the realization that the Skalds at least wouldn't leave him be until they had their answer Mira agreed to tell them, but he would only tell the tale once.  So Torstig had run to get Julian, Atti and the few others of their war band who were numbered as their brothers to hear the tale.

Predictably Yu came with Julian and Atti brought a small keg of beer.

What wasn't expected was that Juha and Petri came with Jukka and Jonne.

Mira let out a pained sigh when she saw Freyja and Nikki, Sami's parents.  Bad enough his mother knew, but the father?  To know his second son would give him no grandsons?  Mira waited a bit and paced to hide his nerves.

He hated this story, hated that his father had been such a short sighted and ill mannered idiot and in the end it still had gotten him dead.

Sami apparently was unhappy with his pacing and stood to gather Mira into his arms and whisper soothing nonsense and stroke his hair.

The worst part was it helped.

Mira looked at all the faces staring back at him as Iason and Jukka carefully kindled a fire.

He squared his shoulders and took a deep breath.

Soonest begun, soonest done, and he wanted this over.

“My father was a lord who had a disagreement with his Uncle.  He was to inherit his father’s lands and titles at his death and when Grandfather went on crusade and got himself stupidly dead his Lord Uncle turned him out and took over both the land and titles and added them to his own.”

There was rumbling at that, all too often similar things happened in small Holdings.  The gods had a nasty habit of returning those lost heirs to their homes with unpleasant paybacks for the men who had turned them out of their rightful homes.  At the best of times those oath breakers got turned out and simply declared outlaw, at worst though.

Well, at worst they were pleading their case before the gods directly.

Mira leaned into Sami's side and waited for the grumblings to die down so he could continue.

“Father made a deal with a witch to get his lands back.  She wanted something more than silver or jewels or even grain and cattle.  He vowed she could have his firstborn should she wish it if he could have his lands back.  She took him at his word.  I know there are tales of the fight it took to get his lands and titles back, and of how he won my mother.”

Mira crossed his arms over his chest defensively and rubbed at his arms to try and warm himself from the chill of memory.  Sami shifted closer behind him and bathed him in his warmth.  Torstig and Lauri exchanged sharp looks and Mira knew if they didn't know the tale in all its sordid details already they'd go looking until they found someone who did.  It was the sort of thing that would travel even into the cold northlands and spread far beyond the county and island of his birth.

Tales of scandal, betrayal and unadulterated stupidity tended to.  The only tales that spread faster were ones where inappropriate or forbidden love was involved.  If you had all those and added in magic, well those tales just went everywhere.

“Once I was born the witch came for her due.  And father tried to claim the agreement was for first-born daughter.  But the witch didn't care and as she and mother worshipped the same goddess they came to an agreement.  In mother's eyes an oath was an oath, and however ill conceived it had been it was too been honored.  Even though it broke her heart to do so.  Father was furious and cast mother out for being pagan; he refused to allow her to take her jewels or cattle with her.  And he refused to let her have me.”

The rumbling was louder this time and Mira realized with a start that all of the Holding was gathered and listening.  Now he really didn't want to continue, but now that it was begun he had no choice.

“The witch did a wrecking, and took father's Mott to the ground, and gave it back to the waters. Then she and Mother took me away.  They took me to Ynys gwyn and raised me there with the girls taken as foundlings or given over to be novices.  I knew I was different, I didn't pay it any mind until my Dreaming time came and I was just like my sisters in dreaming of men.” Mira felt his face burn, the few men that came to the island had made it very clear to him when he was younger that men lay with women, when their dreaming times came they dreamed of women and made offerings in the night to the goddess.  Proper young men didn't dream and make offerings for visions of other men.  But here even the oldest and most grizzled of the warriors only nodded in understanding.

“Mother was old by then and frail and I was terrified something was wrong with me, she just smiled and told me I had been offered on the altar of the goddess and she'd felt the knife deflect, no matter who tried to make the sacrifice the knife turned in their hands and I was left unharmed.  So they left me among the abandoned girl children to be raised up in Her service.”  It had been a bit disconcerting to learn his own mother had tried to spill his hearts blood on the Goddess' altar and when she'd failed had handed him off to others to try the same.

“She made you Hers then,” Lauri declared as he stroked the head feathers of one on his birds as it dozed in his arms.  He smiled over at Amie and reached out to tangle his fingers with hers and tug her closer.  “Now I understand, She made you Hers, so She changed you, that explains the soft cheeks and the color of your hair.”

Mira blinked in shock, his hand going to his braid.

“My hair?”

“Old woman's hair,” Sami murmured as he stroked a hand over Mira's head.  “You have a young person’s face and an old person’s hair.”

Mira blinked, he'd never thought of it that way.  He'd always thought he had his mother's hair; he'd never considered that it might not always have been silver.  All his memories had his mother with silver hair.

“Oh.”

He shivered as Sami gathered him close.

“I can see why you'd be less than enthralled with telling that tale,” mused Lauri as he settled Amie against his chest and let his bird crawl into her arms to finish his nap.  “It's one thing to hide the true heir as a girl, another entirely to learn that your father is an oath-breaking idiot and your blood is simple coin for conquest.  Worse to find you were coin that wasn't even honorably paid.”  Lauri gave himself a shake and smiled down at Amie.  “I think we're better off with following the gods will in finding our lifemates.” He yelped when Amie elbowed him in the ribs, not hard enough to hurt, just hard enough to remind him not to be an ass.

“Even if you are raiding and kidnapping them?” she asked impishly.

“Even then, it's not our fault that you southerners have no concept of a friendly raid for wives.”

Mira blinked and silently mouthed the word 'friendly ' in confusion.

“Friendly,” Sami whispered, “we didn't kill anyone, only took things that there was a ridiculous surplus of, or like Lauri wrapped his treasure up in her blankets and carried her away.” The feel of his breath on his ear made Mira shiver.

“Only Yu swiped things that were newly made, and that was more retribution for that kitchen girl hurting Julian than anything.”  Mira could hear the smile in Sami's voice.  “Picti are so unpredictable we never know quite what he'll do.  And he's so protective of Juke you'd think he was a pregnant woman half the time.”

Mira blinked and rested her eyes on the oddly spiked black hair of the man curled around Julian.  Yu didn't even look up at him, just cuddled Julian close to his chest.  In a simple linen tunic all his tattoos but the ones on his hands were hidden and other than his wild hair and facial piercings he looked like any other warrior of the Holding.  Even the hair wasn't that odd, Lauri spiked his up with wax and wore feathers from his ravens in it has a warning of what he was.

Sami's father was clean shaven in summer and only grew his beard in winter.




Winter.

Mira shivered.  He and Amie and Cherie had been taken in late spring, an odd time for a raid.  Spring was planting and birthing season, summer there was fish to catch and fields and beasts to tend, fall was harvest and slaughter.  Only in winter did they have time enough to go trading.

Or raiding.

~0~

Sami wiped his forehead and wished faintly that it wasn't so hot.  Oh he knew they were lucky that it was clear and dry and expected to remain so.  It would let them get their fields harvested and the hay properly dried.  He glanced behind him where Mira was working with a hand scythe and deft motions to cut the heads of wheat that had ergot on them and tuck them away in a bag at his waist.  Atti needed that ergot for his potions, and it needed to be culled from the grain before it was threshed.  Ergot in their bread would be a _very_ bad thing.  Everyone knew the tale of a Holding struck with madness from ergot laced bread.  A full dozen women had been drown and stoned to death for crimes they'd never committed and two bound pairs had been driven to leap from a cliff top rather than risk being separated and killed.  Of those pairs only one had had both mercifully drown, the other had a survivor and he'd been more than half mad without his bonded.  He'd carried the tale far and wide before stepping into a raging bonfire to join his mate in Othar's Hall.

He huffed and gathered another sheaf of wheat and bound it neatly.  He paused when one of the Holding children came around with a bucket and cup and took a deep draught of water.  Torstig was starting to slow and soon Risto would come up from tying sheaves and take his place at the great scythe and continue cutting this section of the field.  Sami looked over the field.  They were making good progress, and likely would finish this field today rather than tomorrow like they'd expected.  His eyes lingered on Mira as he stopped his work of culling ergot infected ears of wheat and took a deep drink of the water himself.

Mira still wore the soft trousers and loose tunics that the Holding women wore, but he didn't have the heavy apron they did unless he was doing some task that he knew would be dirty.  Now that his tale was known he was letting Sami close, letting him sleep cuddled close and waking with more pleasant things

Sami sighed and gave himself a shake, the field wouldn't harvest itself.  He'd see about ambushing his lover behind the hay rick later.

~0~

Ten days of harvesting and Uther was very pleased with the yields.  They'd gone into the neighboring Holdings; places abandoned with the deaths of the families and seeded the land just on a whim.  Now they were pulling in those fields and while the yields weren't as good as the ones his people had been tending all summer it was better than he'd expected and more than worth the seed to do again with winter rye and field peas.

If things continued to go well he'd have to see about planting some people as well.  It was that or build at least one more longhouse, and he rather thought his eldest boy would do well with a small Holding of his own.  He'd have asked Jyrki, but the man wouldn't go where he didn't have access to the sea.  Uther would have to look at his people and consider the idea carefully before he brought the idea up to his Ylsa.  If he told her she'd have things organized before he could sneeze twice.  She smiled a little as he looked down at where his wife was shooing the Holding's children into the fields to glean any fallen heads of wheat before they began plowing for winter rye, lentils and peas.  If they got lucky they might get a very late crop of peas from the nearer fields.

Lauri had been able to direct the fishing boats to several good schools of herring and Torstig had been able to sing them into the middle of a large lot of cod.  The two crab boats had been pulling up pot after pot of large males so their larders were filling with smoked, salted, dried and carefully canned seafood at a rapid rate.  And that was without the gleaners pulling in lots of oyster, mussel and clams and the seaweeds that kept the bloating sickness away.  Jyrki's Jussi had found a good lot of giant clams and been insufferably smug when Jyrki had come in two days late but loaded with baskets full of the fresh and preserved delicacies.

He'd laughed when Sami had taken Mira out to check the salmon weirs and hadn't expected them to come back with anything in particular other than perhaps some river clams or trout.  But Mira had run back for Iason, Jukka, Jonne and several other young warriors to help and they come back with a bounty of scarlet fleshed fish salted and smoked to perfection.  They'd also come back with salted jars of roe, something altogether unexpected and a very welcome treat.  They'd set children to watching in case there was another unexpected run before the main one expected in a few weeks.

Uther smiled as he watched the fishing boats come in and saw Amie and Cherie waiting on the shore for their men. Given how Lauri craved his wife's touch he wasn't surprised with the Raven Skald jumped off the boat before it was fully ashore to splash up and pounce his wife. He'd best get some of the others down to help; he didn't think Lauri was going to be fit for more work until a few urges got stated.  Still, it was good to see the man happy and enjoying the sweet kisses of his wife.

From the pleased smiles on Jussi and Jyrki's faces they'd had a very good haul.

Idly he reminded himself to get Aethar's help with the logistics of re-covering the decking of the dock; once they started getting ice there would be no more beaching their boats until spring thaw.

He'd barely passed word out that the fleet was in through one of the Holdings thralls when a cry of 'sail, sail' went up.

Uther sighed and reached for his far seeing glass and peered through it out to the horizon.

Sure enough there was a brightly striped woolen sail.  He'd have to remember to give credit due to Jussi's sharp eyes for the early warning.  That boy had proved worth his weight in silver since Jyrki had brought him properly into the Holding.  It was just an almighty pity his father hadn't had any other sons and the Holding had gone to Thorvald's brother.

It was a bit early for trade, but one never knew.

He sent another thrall out with the warning to gather the warriors.

~0~

Sami fumed as he stared out at the boat sailing up.

He wasn't upset that a sail had been sighted, that could be a raid, or traders or even just some of the extended family coming in to visit.  It could even be a group of raiders from another Holding blown off course by a deep water storm and looking for friendly faces until they got their boat repaired and could sail home.

No, what had him unhappy was that Mira wasn't in the Holding proper with the rest of the dependents. Oh no, he'd collected a neat pile of smooth round rocks and was on the wall between the beachhead and the path to the Holding.  Several of the women were there with their bows, and that was their place if it came to a fight, so his objection wasn't _rational_.

He just wanted his Mira safe.

Sami twitched and look to his right where Lauri had his eyes closed and his face to the sky as he communed with one of his birds as they circled high overhead.

It was hard not to jostle him and ask if he'd seen anything.

Then Lauri smiled.

“I see white shields.”

Sami's knees went wobbly in relief.

Uther turned and waved a kerchief of blue at the women on the wall and just like that all of the men were shifting from ready for battle to being ready to guest visitors.  He was rather proud of his Holding's reputation for guesting visitors well.

A few at a time they cycled back to the long house to shed their armor and lay aside their heavier weapons and shields.

Freyja began hustling the household’s women into laying out neat baskets of things they had for trade as the boat began the last turn into shore.  Ylsa had been feeling unwell and quietly sat by Uther and supervised.

Whoever their Skald was, he was skilled and soon had the boat grounded, set side on to the beach in a further indication of peaceful intent.  A breath later and Uther knew who their visitors were as Torstig let out a whoop and charged the man who had jumped out of the boat.

It was that blasted Hun, Uther thought with affection as he watched Torstig hug the taller, slimmer man and pummel his shoulder in a way that likely left bruises.  But Linke didn't budge, just hugged Torstig back and, from the way his face lit and the second round of hugs and pummeling, congratulated Torstig on his new wife. Sure enough a breath later and Torstig was beckoning Cherie down to meet the man who had been his foster brother.

Uther nodded to himself as he ticked off familiar faces as they jumped from the boat to the beach.  Juri with his square jaw and quiet smile.  Little Jan, Uther made a note to keep the man clear of any charcoal and saltpeter, and cheerful little Kiro.  Rom still had a limp he noted and Timo still hovered over their Skald. Uther idly wondered if Timo still called fish like he used to his first three days on a boat.  But David was as bright eyed as ever and greeted him, not with a formal hail but with a delighted squeal and hug.  It might not be strictly proper, but Uther had no doubts as to the sincerity and joy of David's greeting.

David followed that up by asking after Uther's wife, daughters, sons, the sons' wives, his grandchildren and peripherally every person he knew in the entire Holding, which was almost every man, woman and child.  Timo looked pained but the rest of the smallish crew looked amused.  David was irrepressible when he was happy, and Ylsa smiled at David's pretty expressions of concern for her health.

Uther blinked in surprise when he saw three unfamiliar faces.  One was a man so fair of face he might have been a woman, but then he opened his mouth and a deep and rich voice emerged.  His hair was as dark as Mira's was fair and he seemed to be attached to the steersman, a quiet man named Shinya who was one of the finest navigators Uther knew of.  The others were a quiet but blocky blond who vaguely reminded Uther of someone and a feisty brunet who looked terribly out of place in his fancy short tunic and tightly fitted hosen.

From the fond smiles he collected as he groused about the water getting in his boots he was a long time and good friend of many of the men.

Atti let out a snicker and Uther heard his whispered comment about pretty popinjay's to Iason.  But Iason stayed strangely silent as he watched.

A quick glance and Uther had to stifle a snicker.

Clearly the gods had decided these young men had spread enough of their seed far and wide in the Holdings, and to put an end to their foolishness was binding them to others as quickly as was reasonable.  He glanced back at where Sami was hovering over Mira.  Not that Nikki had cause for complaint given his first and third sons had wives and children enough to keep him busy when he wasn't making nets and fish traps.

This ought to be an amusing visit.

~0~

Sami was getting frustrated.  Not that Mira wouldn't lie with him, though that was an annoyance.  He'd been getting tastes of sweet pleasure outside their shared bed in the longhouse, just not in their bed in the longhouse, so it wasn't like he was terribly deprived.  And given time he was reasonably sure Mira would get past the odd bits of bashfulness and get used to loving him with no regard paid to any observers.  He wanted the feel of his lover striving against him, with him and crying his name in pleasure, and wanted it more than in hidden bowers, empty meadows and the hidden lodges kept for young men raiding their wives from nearby Holdings.  He wanted it in the comfort of their bed and be damned anyone who was watching.  But for now those hidden trysts were enough to keep him from going mad wanting Mira's touch.

No, the frustration was that Mira didn't care for ornament on his clothes, not bright colors or embroideries.  He wasn't one for other ornament either, not rings on his slim fingers, though he now wore small gold hoops in his ears.  But other than those two small hoops Sami had yet to get Mira to wear anything other than the silver rings that confined his braid, the torc around his neck and the jade thumb ring he used when practicing archery with Sami's mother.  It had taken pleading and a long explanation before Mira set the torc that marched his around Sami's neck.

The teasing he'd gotten from his brothers when Risto saw the braided bit of gold with its dragon headed ends had made his ears burn scarlet for weeks.

Now David and Linke were here and he'd seen silks in emerald and scarlet and sapphire and wished he could convince Mira to wear more than plain un-dyed linen and wool. He'd seen finely worked gold and silver and knew he had weight for weight to trade for it, but that Mira wouldn't wear it.

It was _frustrating_.

Torstig's pretty new wife was susceptible to flattery, a tunic of sapphire silk and pretty combs studded with amber and pearls for her hair.  Risto had gifted his Elsa with a necklace of amber teardrops that had many of the Holding girls gaping in envy. And Lauri had traded for a lot of the heavy scarlet silk for his Amie, but Sami suspected it would be a while before they used it for anything other than disporting on.

Mira had shrugged at the pretties on display and gone out hunting late season herbs.

He wanted any observer to know his lover was taken, was treasured and valued beyond his weight in silver.  But the blasted man dressed like a common thrall of the Holding and refused to dress otherwise.

It was maddening.

And his mother thought it was funny.

He'd begged help from his brother and Tahvo had almost fallen into the fire he laughed so hard.  But Tahvo's wife liked fine things as much as the other women and Tahvo had traded for a fine lot of the grains that made scarlet dye, the saffron for golden yellow and the seed for another type of indigo for his wife.

His father had been even less help and simply suggested he hide Mira's plain tunics and leave him the choice of going naked or wearing the finer ones.

Sami wasn't sure he wanted the Holding gaping at the unclothed body of his lover.  He was quite certain given the choice of naked or silk Mira would go naked, just to spite him.

He had no idea what to do.  He wanted Mira adorned to match his value, but Mira just would not cooperate.

So Sami had confided in Linke.

And Linke had a suggestion.

~0~

Mira stretched and woke himself enough that he could be a useful help to Freyja and not a hindrance like some of the young women were before they were fully awake.  He reached for his tunic and blinked in surprise when he didn't feel the familiar feel of Holding spun linen under his fingers.  He checked, and the tunic was the same soft gray as his novitiate tunic had been, was almost the same cut, but was in something that felt faintly slick, not the texture of his own tunic at all.  Mira frowned back at where Sami was still sleeping and reached for his over-tunic and found it had been switched as well.  And this time the tunic had a very faint pattern of interlocking keys woven into it.

He turned and gave Sami a solid thump on the arm.  Sami's eyes popped open far too quickly for him to have truly been sleeping, so Mira growled at him and shoved the offending garments under his nose.

“What did I tell you about clothing that will be spoiled by work?”

The guilt on Sami's face just confirmed his suspicion.

“But.”

“Sami...”

This time Sami grabbed him and rolled them over so he could pin Mira under his broad body.

“Mira, you have value, more than silver to me.  But you dress like the Holding thralls. And even our thralls have bright embroidery on their clothing.  I don't want visitors to think we value you so little. That I care so little for you.  I don't want you stolen from me by some buck who thinks he'd make you a better husband.”

“I wouldn't go.”

Sami cupped Mira's face.

“Please?”

Mira let out a low groan.  He hated it when Sami got that pleading look in his blue eyes.

“When we've guests?  Please?  So they don't look at my mother and wonder how she raised so ill mannered and ungrateful a son?”

Mira closed his eyes.  That was just underhanded.  He adored Freyja, and with harvest being mostly over they were starting to see more people. Mira opened his eyes and groaned again to see the plea behind Sami's blue eyes.

“For your Mother,” he conceded and then was clutching tight to Sami's shoulders as the bigger man drowned him in fervent kisses and caresses.

He felt himself blushing later when he went outside to comb and braid his hair, half the longhouse had been awakened by Sami's loving him and there were far too many knowing smiles on the men's faces.

For that matter there were far too many smug and knowing smiles on the faces of the women.

Mira squeaked when he felt strong hands take his comb away and start running it through his long hair.  Not that it was the comb he'd used at home, that simple bit of boxwood was long gone, this was a piece Sami had offered him made of some heavy and highly polished green stone, and covered not in the simple carvings of ivy his old comb had but ornately figured leaves and flowers that somehow took advantage of the mottling in the stone.  But it didn't snag like his old comb had, and it was use it or cut off his hair and Sami had reacted to that suggestion with horror.

“Sami,” he protested but was shushed as Sami settled in to comb out even the smallest hint of a tangle.

“I want to.”

What else could he do but sit there and feel very much on display.  But Sami liked combing out his hair.

Just to make him feel even more self conscious a trio of riders came up and one of them shot Sami a puzzled look to see him tending another's hair.

~0~

Ville was rather surprised to ride up and find Nikki's second son combing out the hair of a woman, but from the quietly contented smile on Sami's face this must be the wife he'd stolen in battle this past spring.  His eyes lingered on the woman's flushed cheeks as Sami worked silver beads into the woman's long silver pale hair.

She wasn't exactly pretty, not like the girl the Raven Skald had brought home, but she was striking with huge green eyes and a trim form.  And everyone knew Nikki still combed Freyja's hair out morning and night when he was home, so no one could say Sami was behaving counter to his blood.  That and Ville had heard stories of the beating the first, and last, man to comment on Nikki's habit of combing out his wife hair had taken.  So no one would dare breathe a word of criticism, and because of that all Nikki's sons had taken to showing how they valued their partners with little displays of this sort.

Ville bit his lip to keep a smile inside at the memory of Tahvo's eldest daughter returning the favor and how the man had worn scarlet ribbons binding off his braids for a day.  No one had breathed a word, no one wanted to annoy the man who was taking over as the Holding's smith.  Especially as the man had his mother’s gift of song and could sing strength and sharpness to a weapon.

“Ho, Sami son of Nikki,” he greeted as he slid off his horse and let a thrall take it away to be brushed, fed and watered.

“Ho, Ville son of Jyrki.  How is the old bear this autumn?”

Ville smiled and waved the warriors he'd ridden in with on toward the fire pit and a good mug of beer.

“Father is well, and plotting the raiding for this winter.  Who is this?”  His eyes trailed up the slim form and he puzzled a bit over why any wife of Sami's would be dressed in plain gray.  But he took in the fine figure of the weave and the sheen of the fabric and concluded that this woman must have refused colors for some strange reason.  The silk and fine linen of her tunics and the sturdy but fine wool of her trousers bespoke some of Sami's wealth even if it was in an understated way.  And Ville blinked when he saw the wealth of finely worked silver beads Sami was weaving into her hair and the weight of the silver rings he used to confine it.

“This is my sworn mate, Mira.” Sami smiled fondly and dropped a kiss behind the newly named Mira's ear.  “Mira, this is Ville, his father is Head of the Sininen laakso Holding to our northeast.  They breed very fine horses. Our Jyrki's mate, Jussi, comes from there and is cousin to Ville.”

Ville blinked and did a rapid reassessment and was quietly grateful he hadn't asked if this lovely thing was Sami's wife.  Only he knew how badly he'd misjudged the gender of Sami's companion, but then he grinned at the compliment.  Their Holding's wealth was in its fields, herds and horses.

A breath later his eyes had gone round as the slim creature rose and cupped both hands in front of his breast in a way that was eerily familiar.  His Mother was a priestess of Iriet, and she used a very similar hand gesture when she greeted the Holding's warriors after they had been away on errands or blessed them when they went raiding for wives.

“I see you, Ville son of Jyrki.  May She smile on you.”  Then Mira smiled and with a look that he couldn't interpret shot at Sami excused himself to go help Freyja.

“Did you go raiding the White Isle for a wife?” Ville hissed at Sami as he watched his, not wife, his partner walk away.

The soft smile he got in answer to his question was far from reassuring.

“No, we hit the far northern Bretons; they have many Holdings for many soft southern gods.  We found one on a small island that was filled with pretty women.”

“That,” Ville pointed after Mira. “Was no woman.  Fair of face he is, but **not** a woman.”

Sami's smile suddenly became self-deprecating.

“I thought he was when I first saw him drawing water.  He was dressed the same as all the other women, and that hair.” The fond sigh told Ville Sami was well and truly bound by his partner.  It was almost as amusing as watching his cousin pine for his mate until the first trinkets from the man began appearing, carried in Annekke's apron when she came visiting.  To his knowledge his cousin still wore the golden Othar's hammer Jyrki had sent on a chain over his heart.

At least he hadn't been the only one who thought he was a she.  The Trickster knew the man was fair enough to be a woman.

“So then, who else reaved away fair battle brides?”  Ville was curious, and settled down beside Sami on the bench his Mira had been seated on.  A moment later and one of the thrall girls came up with mugs of morning ale and sausages wrapped in sweet pancakes.

“Two of our Skalds.  Torstig and Lauri.  And Torstig's did all in her power before he won her heart to geld him.”

“Ah?” Ville asked, now interested in hearing any tale that had that hyper chatterbox discomfited.  He liked Torstig, but sometimes liked knowing that his silver tongue wasn't smooth enough to get under the skirts of all women.

“Came kicking and screaming she did.”

“Yours was no better, he bit you and tried to drown you in any foul smelling thing that came to hand,” Torstig retorted as he settled with his own breakfast on the other end of the bench.

Ville kept his mouth filled with Freyja's very good beer and Ylsa's excellent sausage and tried not to inhale either as he laughed at the tales of both men winning their spouses.

It still puzzled him why Sami's lover wasn't dressed to show how he was valued.

He'd watch and see if he couldn't puzzle it out.

~0~

When Ville mounted up to go back home he was still puzzled by Sami's Mira.  He'd seen how Sami tried to get him into finer clothing, been slightly mind boggled at the heavy jewel casket Sami had assembled of silver and pale gold, of black pearls, emeralds and jades from far off lands for his lover.  It was a chest fit for a princess, filled with all sorts of pretty things, no small few that most of his men would have been pleased to wear or use.  But given the choice Mira wore common linen and the tough woolens woven by the wives and thralls.  The only ring he ever saw on the man's hand was a jade thumb ring he used when he was out learning the ways of the bow from Sami's mother and sisters.  And that simply made his head hurt, only a very few men bothered to learn the bow.  Even for hunting the bow was a woman's weapon.

It was confusing, and Ville had no doubt it was maddening for Sami.

But he couldn't stay and continue picking at the puzzle, he had Uther's answer to his father's question and needed to ride home with it and the heavy gold rings Uther had gifted him.

His men had come out of this trip with pretties of their own and Ville was not going to keep either from their wives long than needful.  Ulmar's wife was going to be delivering him a son soon, and far be it from Ville to keep the woman for scaring her husband white with threats to his manhood as she delivered.

Later in the winter he'd see what he could learn.

The Skalds all talked to each other; maybe he could winkle out the clues he needed from one of them.

~0~

Sami had almost exploded when he realize Mira was aboard, but his father’s calm smile had aborted that.  He still dragged his lover to the stern of the boat and vented his frustration in softly hissed warnings and pleas.  Mira wore no armor, no hauberk had been made for his slim frame, no leather chest plate fitted, he didn't even have a helm to cover his bright hair.

He was beside himself with worry, but Atti and Iason were amused.

Hella, the whole ship was amused and he could see the amusement on the faces of the men on the other two Dragons if he looked across the waters between them.

At least until they got to the first holding they'd planned on actually raiding and not simply trading with.  Then they all sobered.

Lauri had heard tales that this place was less than honest in trade. Bad enough alone, but this place housed a large following of the followers of the White Christ.  And they were given stern injunction by their god to not steal, not rape and not murder.

When they crept ashore in a heavy fog Iason found himself grim witness to how this group of so called wise and holy men comported themselves.

The poor thrall fainted in fright when he gave the monk assaulting her a solid tap to the skull, but at least he hadn't been able to bury his little worm inside the poor girl.  Given how she'd been struggling and pleading and the fear in her face he had no doubts this so called holy man had been intent on a rape.  He'd have to see if they could steal the girl, she might still be a thrall, but Uther treated his bound servants better than this.

He'd been hard pressed to not yell when Mira crept up, all but invisible in his grays in the swirling mists until he was atop Iason and the false wise man.

“Lauri has said his birds have found almost no guards.  Those they have found are old and fat men dozing at their posts, not healthy, young and alert ones.”

Iason nodded.  That made things both simpler and far more complicated.

Simpler in that there was no one to really bear arms against them.  While he liked a good fight just as well as the next man getting dead was something he'd like to put off a bit longer.

It complicated things in that they'd need to be a bit sneakier.  Uther was partial to leaving as many alive after a raid as possible.  The simple reason was if you left enough able bodies behind they'd rebuild in situ and you could raid the place again in a year or two and get decent plunder from it.  The other was none of them wanted another vengeful spirit to follow them across the waves and bring sickness.

Iason shivered again as Mira slipped away in the fog to carry the message onward.  In his grays with that silver hair Mira looked like a spirit himself.

~0~

Jyrki fidgeted, the fog was uncanny, and by rights should have burned off already.

But it hadn't.  It lingered.

It made their lives easier.  Jussi had claimed to have knocked a full dozen monks free of their wits and left them bound and gagged in their stables.

After that he'd liberated some very fine horseflesh mind you.  Five very fine mares and three solid geldings now resided below decks on one of the Dragons.  They'd had to do a bit of hasty work to accommodate them, but if half of the mares made it home it would be more than worth it.

And that was before the men began hauling back sacks of grain, bolts of cloth and bales of fine goods.  They'd turned a hand to help Jussi bring in straw to bed their stolen horses in and fodder to feed them, and then continued to haul back raw iron and black coal for the smith. 

Then Sami had come in with a barrow laden with books, books that Julian had lit up to see and received with reverent hands.  Yu's lot of stolen pigs didn't get as broad a delighted smile from the slim man.  The Picti had scowled until Sami told him where to find more of the manuscripts and left the barrow in his hands.

Jyrki shook his head.

He was rather glad his lover had been found in the next Holding over and hadn't been dragged kicking, screaming and swearing aboard a Dragon boat.  Or like Yu had done, simply turned up aboard with all his worldly goods tied in a sack at his feet.

A moment later and he was stifling snickers.

Jussi had found the Holding's sheep.  If things kept up they'd have the lowest decks of all three Dragons loaded down with pilfered livestock and a few stolen thralls.  Iason had already brought three thrall girls back to the boat, none of which seemed to be objecting all that much to their change in owners.

Not that that was in any way a bad thing.  And given Iason's tale of how he had come by the one, likely was an improvement for both thralls and livestock.

~0~

Sami barely stifled a yelp when Mira came up beside him out of the fog. He'd been fighting with the one locked door he'd found in the whole place.  The door was too solid and well made for him to simply break down, he'd bruised his shoulder trying already, and he had nothing to serve to pick the lock.

Not that he had any real skill at lock picking.

Mira just stared at the door.

“Do you think Jussi has looted all the blacksmith's tools?”

“Uh?” Then Sami saw what Mira had and grinned.

The doors swung out, so the hinges were on the same side of the door as he was.

They found Jussi just starting a systematic looting of the blacksmith's workspace and purloined a mallet and a long punch.

Iason caught up to them and helped Sami take the heavy iron banded doors down off their hinges.

What they found was more than worth the effort.

All the Holdings silver and gold plate was behind that door.  A chest filled with silver chains, broken links, rings and bracelets was so heavy it took both of them to move.

When they came back they had more help to move the rest.

Mira watched the door; his eyes scanned the foggy courtyard and roved up the steps to the high walls. High overhead the sun was a faint silvered ball in the sky.  And circling somewhere in those mists were Lauri's birds, keeping watch for their master.

Carefully they gathered up almost every scrap of plate and coin and even walked off with a half dozen small, but heavy, locked coffers.

They left the locked cabinet under the altar alone, and left the lamp burning above it be as well.  Any god that was willing to sacrifice his only son wasn't one to be idly trifled with, so they left His space be.  Robbing His servants was another matter altogether.

Sami was the last one out and they were just starting to run back to the Dragons when a shrill outcry came from the walls.

If there was anyone not bound and left in the place they fell to take up arms they'd find out very shortly.

Better to not be handy.

Lauri and Torstig seemed to be like minded and had two of the Dragons already shifting offshore

The last was waiting, so Sami tossed the coffer up to Risto, then hefted Mira up and over the rail before leaping to grab it himself and clamber over.

Lauri's chant had the boat shifting, then there was a little jolt and it was free of the sand and turning about smartly to line up with her sisters and head out into deeper water.

Sami ducked from long habit when he heard arrows hitting the water and bouncing off the hull.  But under the power of two Skalds, full sails and all the oars they were out of range before the men on shore could loose more than a volley or two.

Jussi, ever the irreverent one popped up and in the slowly clearing fog stuck his tongue out and sent rude gestures back at the fuming men.

Sami found it funny, at least until he turned to share his laughter with Mira and found him pale and clutching his left arm with a white feathered arrow shot through it.

~0~

Atti sighed and sat back on his heels.  Mira had been their only real casualty and with a bit of care this winter he should heal up fine.

Well, as long as he didn't take a wound fever, and Atti had cleaned the wound with boiled sea water and packed it carefully with herbs and stolen honey before he bound it carefully.  It hadn't been a hard wound to deal with; the arrow head had been a simple point and gone cleanly through the muscle missing the bone and the major veins completely.

Not that it wouldn't _hurt_.  Wounds like that were often beastly painful, worse sometimes than more critical ones.

But Atti didn't foresee any troubles, if they could keep Mira from using the limb and if he'd gotten all the bits of linen out of the wound itself.

Sami though, he could see was going to be a rampaging nuisance.  Sami was cuddled up behind Mira and cradling him as he slept off the dose Atti had given him before working on his arm.  He was treating Mira like he was the finest and most fragile of blown glass, and that would drive Mira into doing things on his own just to drive his mate crazy.

Atti looked over to where Uther, Wulf, Jyrki and Jussi had their heads together over a tiny brazier.  The four men had been discussing the state of their trading and raiding.  The lower holds were filled with goods and livestock and Wulf was of a mind to trade away some of those animals.  Not all, but some.  The geldings and some of the sheep and the boars of the pigs Yu had found.

Jyrki was for the idea, just to clear a bit of space and to reduce some of the workload.  Keeping unhappy and thus messy animals clean and as comfortable as it was possible to be was a lot of work for restless men.

Jussi wasn't sure how far they'd need to go south to unload the extra animals.

Atti shook his head and sighed. They'd have to wait and see.

~0~

Trading was rather nice Lauri mused as he picked over the wares on display.  He'd already found a good iron pot and begun filling it with packets of the dyes to make the colors his Amie adored.  Sami had traded a bit of his share of the silver for some fine pelts of silver fur seal and had been prodded several times when he paused and looked back toward the boats with a wistful look on his face.

Mira was still below, sleeping a drugged sleep in the bunk he and Sami shared. 

Even with rinses of boiled seawater and packing’s of honey and herbs Mira was showing signs of wound fever.  So far Atti skills were keeping things under control, but Sami would fret and worry until his mate was whole again no matter what.

Torstig and Yu had traded some of the pigs and sheep for a number of ewes that had black fleeces, something that would be nice come spring, but wouldn't get rid of the livestock below decks.

Torstig had also borrowed Julian's clever tongue and traded for a box that he was refusing to let anyone look into and a heavy polished jade comb figured red and white and carved in butterflies for his Cherie, but a good number of the men were getting similar things for their wives. And that vendor was looking very pleased as he laid out his dwindling stock to another member of the war band.  The one Sami had gifted Mira worked far better than the wooden ones most of the women had. Better even than the ones of whalebone or ivory.  Julian knew what was in the box, but if he'd shared with anyone other than Yu no one was telling.

The entire war band had done some brisk trading and some of the bulkier items, or the heavier but silly ones like all the silver plate had been exchanged for lighter, smaller and more useful things.  Iron bars, fine steel knives, arrow and spear points, the heavy coils of wire to make fishhooks and armor with.  Barrels of sugar, blocks of good white salt, caskets of spices and bales of fine silks or exotic fur.

Julian had sifted through the books and sorted out the ones that were copies and several of those had found new homes and left Julian richer than he'd ever expected.  A good bit of his windfall of silver he'd turned around and spent on whole spices at one of the better vendors at this market.  The rest he'd spent on exotic furs and fine fabrics.

Lauri smiled a bit as he watched Yu's eyes light up at the lengths of scarlet silk and wool that Julian had found with him in mind. Those two could be terribly cute, and each was trying to find pretties to surprise the other with.  But neither could keep from showing the other what they'd found immediately.  He sighed and closed his eyes to turn his face to the sun.  He missed his Amie.

If things kept up like this they'd be home before midwinter.

~0~

Sami cuddled Mira tightly as the storm set the ship rocking hard.  They'd tied down everything that could be and he'd braced himself between the bunks and held Mira against his chest as they rolled and yawed in the waves.  The sails had been tied tightly down and Torstig and Lauri were focused on keeping all three Dragons afloat and mostly together.

Lauri had seen the storm coming at least, so they'd had some warning to get everything battened down, all the fires and lanterns out and the livestock as secured as they could be.  Lauri also said that according to his birds the blow wouldn't last more than two or three days.

But that was a very long time to bounce about inside a hull.

And Mira's fever was back; not bad yet, but Sami could feel the heat coming off Mira's face.

Just Mira being fever warm wouldn't be a cause for too much concern.  Atti had had enough warning of the storm to boil a large amount of the fever reducer and tranquilizer teas, and both were stoppered up securely in several of Atti's distinctive pottery bottles.  And even with the ships being far less than steady in the water Atti was able to check and re-bandage Mira's wound.  He grumbled about not having boiled sea water to clean the wounds with, but as far as Sami could tell they weren't getting worse.  At least they looked about as red as they had before and there wasn't any more swelling that he could see.

No, what was disturbing was Mira's fevered rambling.

After hearing him mumble about black seas and white cliffs Lauri and Torstig had begun doing sea callings to know where they were in relation to the shoreline. 

After they'd had a calling put them disturbingly close to shore they'd forced the ships back out to the center of the channel and started paying closer attention to Mira's rambling. Once they'd put more distance between themselves and the Isle of the Bretons Mira's restless rambling and movements had calmed.

Wulf had come down from his turn tending the rudder and adding his own small magic to Lauri and Torstig's songs and stared meditatively at Mira while he drank his half bottle of mead and ate his cold dinner.

It made Sami uncomfortable, but with all but the most critical hands off the deck there really wasn't anything he could do but keep them from being tossed about and hope the storm passed soon.

~0~

Lauri all but fell over as soon as the Dragons moved into calmer seas and had clear skies overhead, but a good portion of his magical strength had gone into buffering his birds so they could fly in the tempest.  With his birds in the sky they could navigate.

All and all they had come out of the storm fairly well.  One of the sheep had broken a leg and once they had gotten into calmer seas they'd turned the unfortunate ewe into a nice hot dinner.  And they'd had a strap fail on one corner of the sail on Jyrki's Dragon, but a bit of spare sail cloth and some quick mending and that was readily fixed.

Wulf and Jussi were keeping the boats going the right direction with their lesser powers and Uther, Jyrki and Nikki kept things moving by more mundane means. Torstig was still sleeping the sleep of the utterly exhausted and no one wanted to trouble either Skald unless it was a screaming emergency.

Threading the channels to start to get home was simple enough, even with them taking care to swap shield covers from the brightly painted ones to white canvas ones so landward observers would know they weren't raiding it was a simple thing.  And while they saw the smoke of the signal fires, none of them turned black.  A few fishing vessels came close, but other than friendly hails and questions about schooling fish that they readily answered there was nothing to slow their progress home.

Atti had just settled Lauri into his bunk and nestled his three birds around him so they could all get some well earned rest.  Then he'd had Sami carry Mira above decks to give him better light to see by.  And what the better light revealed made Sami a little sick.

Mira had red streaks going down his arm.  Not so much that they'd been visible in the dim light below but more than enough to make Sami fear blood fevers.

Atti saw them, swore savagely and set a pot of sea water to boil.  Then he took a bit of the un-dyed silk he kept in his kit and set it to boiling and sorted through his kit for the herbs to help strengthen the blood to fight off infection.

Several members of the war band blanched and looked away as Atti worked, and Sami felt distinctly queasy as he watched the healer work.

When he was done the bit of silk was bloodied and covered in streaks of something foul smelling and Atti had poured enough boiled water through the wound to leave part of the deck fouled.  But none of the warriors would dare to complain, not when so many of them had had Atti doing similar things for their wounds, ensuring they could use arm or leg again.

Atti sat back after packing the wound in boiled honey.

“If that doesn't pull the infection we'll need to land.  I can't do the spell to purge poison on water.”

“If needs be we'll find a place.”  Uther's voice was soft and there was a soft murmur of agreement.

Sami let out a little gasp and nodded before he rubbed his cheek over Mira's tangled hair.

~0~

Lauri slept for two days and when he woke ate like a man starved.  His birds had awakened before him and been fed tidbits of meat from a slaughtered pig and soundly spoiled for their work in getting them safely free of the storm.

Torstig woke a day later and also ate like a starved man.  But then they turned the Dragons toward home and safety.

Sami and Atti watched Mira's wounds.  And while they didn't get better they at least got no worse.

They still had full holds and were speeding towards home.

~0~

Aethar had an uneasy feeling in his bones when the calls of 'sail, sail' went up.  He'd taken Uther's long seeing glass and peered out at the horizon and felt the chill settle deeper.  Three sails, three familiar sails.

Their Dragons were returning, and early at that.

He called down to the Holding what he'd seen and an uneasy quiet settled.

For their boats to be back so soon meant things had either gone very well indeed.

Or they'd gone very, very badly.

~0~

Freyja and Tahvo watched as the three Dragons came ashore. 

Tahvo sighed in resignation when Yu's head of spiky black hair was the first up and over the rail.  The Picti didn't say anything, just came up and gave his mother a hug that was strong enough to pick her up off her feet.  Julian's voice calling out that he'd better not be stealing more wives made Freyja laugh, blush and swat at the merrily grinning Picti as he scampered back to his lover, looking for all the world like a child caught in a harmless prank.

Bad enough that blasted Hun had come back with a sealed chest for Sami and given them no clue as to what was in it.  Tahvo suspected his eldest daughter was carrying the seed of one of that mad crew, and wasn't sure which it was, she was invoking her right to tell the father first.  It could be the solid and quiet Gustav or the demon imp Jan, and Tahvo wasn't sure which he'd rather see as a potential son in law.  He would know better in another month, and that lot was due back to finish the winter out with them in another few weeks.

He frowned when he saw how tired the Skalds were.  Lauri almost fell to his knees in the surf and only smiled wanly when he was hauled back to his feet by two of the warriors and planted squarely in front of his worried wife. 

Perhaps their lifting his feet clear of the ground as they carried him had been a bit much.  Risto had only hefted Torstig over his shoulder and planted him on his ass in the sand at his wife's feet and left Cherie to pick up her husband and scold him for being seven kinds of fool for clearly working himself past his endurance.

Even his father looked tired as he came and cuddled mother in his arms.

Tahvo's eyes went round and he was moving forward in worry when he saw Sami's blond head with no scarf confining his hair.  Seeing Mira's head cradled against Sami's shoulder made his heart drop.

It didn't help when Sami refused to hand Mira over and insisted on carrying him up and to their mother.  Father looked saddened, but not surprised and Tahvo wanted very badly to ask what had happened.

Of course after that he was too busy helping unload an absurd amount of livestock from the Dragons to wonder why his mother had all but dragged Sami back to their long house.

~0~

Jyrki grimaced as he watched the thralls carefully scrubbing out the lower decks of the Dragons, even with what they could do things had gotten mucky and smelly and it would take a fair bit of work with the scrubbing stones to get the filth up from the decks.

But he'd no doubts this lot would get the decks cleaned, three had shown themselves willing to do whatever work they were put to, perhaps not always well, at least not at first.  But they were willing to learn, and learned quickly and well.  The rest were used to doing as they were told and not thinking too much about anything else.  A few of the rest, being kind, didn't have the wits to think much anyway.

He shared a glance with Jussi and got a nod and a jerk of a cleft chin as he pointed out one in particular.  Jyrki smiled and nodded.  He'd had his eyes on that one as well. Baize was a quiet man and had been plucked off a beach three years ago if the men who'd handed him over were to be believed.  He hadn't said much about his life before he'd been snatched, he rarely spoke louder than a soft whisper.  Baize had come here two years ago in a lot of thralls paid as blood price for a man killed in a brawl.

He'd be worth the silver to buy his freedom.

Jyrki wondered what he'd look like with his hair grown properly long.

And what that hair would look like splayed of his and Jussi's bedding as they made him scream in pleasure.

~0~

Freyja helped Atti as he prepared to work on pulling the poison out of Mira's blood.  Her heart had all but stopped to see her second son's face as he brought his love to her knee.  Seeing Nikki heartsick had only made things worse.  But he'd had to sit and watch knowing there was nothing he could do to ease the hurt of his son.

But Mira was still breathing and in spite of more than ten days fevered and on a boat was still breathing and holding steady.  Mira had his eyes open and was looking up at Sami where her son knelt over him, whispering and stroking his hair. For all the man had fought Sami tooth and nail for months, now that he had surrendered his heart he'd fight just as hard to stay at Sami's side.

Settled on the perimeter of the clearing Freyja noticed they had Lauri, Torstig, Jukka, Jonne and Yu.  Julian, Jussi and even Wulf.  A fair portion of the war band had come and settled in to lend their strength if it was needed.  And Mira’s sisters Amie and Cherie were in the healing circle, but they wouldn’t be lending more than prayers, not now.

Atti sighed and lifted his arms to the skies and began his chant.

~0~

Sami hated that he couldn't stay beside Mira as Atti chanted and worked his own peculiar healing magics.  He knew the chant, all too well, it was the one Atti had used on him every time Mira had tried to poison him.  But when it had been him they hadn't had to sweep the ground clear of a covering of snow.  When it was him Atti hadn't thrown steam up from his bare shoulders as he worked.  The sky hadn't been leaden and gray with winter chill; it had been blue and warm with summer's promise.

Mira shuddered and Sami started forward.  Only Wulf's heavy hand on his shoulder kept him from bolting to his lover's side.

“Be still lad, be still.”

Sami settled, but unhappy and watched.

He was watching so intently that he didn't see the mists gathering around the clearing.  He didn't even notice until Mira cried out again and Wulf again held him down.  He'd turned to plead with the big navigator to let him go and been shocked that the mists were so thick he almost couldn't see the man right beside him.

It had been clear, if cold when they'd begun.

He blinked and looked around the circle and had trouble seeing anyone now other than Atti who was bare chested in the cold, his mother holding Mira still and his life mate tossing restlessly under his mothers hands.

He jumped when someone touched his arm, and looked up to find Lauri's face a handbreadth from his own.

“I think your little lover has a weather Skald's gift.”

Sami blinked in confusion.

Wulf echoed that with a hoarse “What?”

Lauri chewed his lip and looked into the circle.

“Yu noticed it.  Look at how Mira's lips move and how the mists thicken.”

“How would a wild Picti know of weather magics?”

“We use it.”  Yu smiled toothily up at Wulf from his other side, and made the bigger man jump.  “My sister could call the mists.  How do you think we hide from our enemies?”  The Picti's soft voice carried easily and the laughter echoed the humor in his eyes.

Sami blinked and turned to stare with wide eyes out to the center where Atti was finishing his ritual chant by dousing Mira with a pail of water to wash the last of the toxins away.

Then he was moving and refused to let Wulf hold him.  He was out of his fur lined tunic and had it wrapped around a shivering Mira and was gathering him up and moving back to the longhouse without any prompting from his mother.

~0~

The eerie fog lingered, not so much that horse or hound couldn't find their way, but enough to make the human members of the Holding a touch uneasy.  It made others uncomfortable when they realized Lauri's ravens had no trouble seeing through the fog and that Yu also had no difficulty moving about.

In fact the Picti took a childish glee in appearing out of the snow and murk and startling folk only to giggle and dart off again.

On the good side, while the mist lingered no worse weather appeared.  And given how nasty the snowstorms could be that was something of a blessing for the men who went out fishing.

Something Jyrki noticed on his first trip back out was that the mist would clear just enough for their boats to thread a safe passage through the fjord and to the beach below the Holding.  And he’d noticed that a number of other boats had trouble finding their way through it unless they were known as friendly and hailed and then followed one of their own boats in.

Given the thick mists were only fading as Mira got back on his feet and several boats with sails known to be less than friendly got soundly twisted about and lost in the fog.  Well, he had an opinion, and one he shared with Jussi, Wulf and Uther.  He hadn't yet mentioned his thoughts to Sami, but Sami was being overprotective.

If he hadn't been alive to see Nikki doing exactly the same thing every time Freyja was pregnant, Jryki smiled and shook his head.  Sami was nothing but a fair haired, blue eyed copy of his father, even if neither man saw it.  Not that Sami's brothers were any better with their wives.  Even his youngest brother Jali was being as bad or worse with his shield brother, Veli.  Not that either boy was of an age for raiding quite yet.

Jussi had impishly set him the bet that Mira would start thumping Sami just like Freyja had, not that Jyrki was fool enough to take that bet.  He knew better and he remembered all too well the chase Mira had led Sami on. He'd let Jussi filch silver from men who didn't know the pair better.

He squinted up at the path above the fjord and called a hail up and waved his arms in greeting.

Ville was on the trail, with a few men and a string of his father's fine horses headed for the Holding.

A quick chat called up and down the cliff and Jyrki was promising to carry word of their coming to Uther and turning back to shoo Jussi away from the tiller before the imp ran them aground.

~0~

Sami snuggled up behind Mira in their bed and stroked a hand down his lover's side then back up under the soft linen shift he'd worn to bed.  Mira was healing, slowly, but he was healing.  His mother had set Mira to mindering the household thralls, and most of them weren't the sort to cause trouble.  Troublemakers Nikki had no tolerance for, a male thrall would get a warning, then harsher duties, and if that failed, flogged.  Females tended to take a hint better, he'd never in all his life seen one of his mothers serving women flogged, scolded, and in a few very rare instances slapped, but never flogged.

It helped that Mira was putting his hand to whatever duties he could still do, but household duties weren't what was on his mind.

Well, other than the duties one spouse had to the other.  It had been far too long since he'd had his lover under him.

Mira squirmed a bit as Sami thumbed over a nipple and shifted his other arm around to slide under the waist of Mira's loose trousers.

“Sami...” The soft gasp after his name made Sami smile as Mira caught his right wrist in his hand and tried to pull it out of his trousers.

Sami just chuckled and nuzzled behind Mira's ear as he thumbed the nipple under his left hand again and delved a little deeper.  The soft moan he collected made him smile and the way Mira shifted his legs apart made his pulse hammer harder in his veins.  He groaned and palmed over the firming erection under his hand and rocked his hips into Mira's backside.

Mira moaned again and shifted, trying to turn to face Sami, but Sami wasn't about to let Mira lie on his injured arm.  He shifted and soon had Mira laid out over his chest and stroked his hands down that smooth back to rest on that pert backside.  A bit of work and he had Mira's shift off and Sami was mouthing hungrily over his chest as he tried peeling Mira's trousers down enough to plunder lower.

While the laces opened easily Mira wasn't shifting up enough for Sami to peel the offending garment off.  So he grumbled and rolled them over and once he had Mira securely under him Sami groped for the little jar of salve they used in their play.

As always Mira gasped and arched up when Sami probed with slicked fingers.

“Sami.”

Sami let out a happy groan as Mira hitched his hips up and clutched his shoulders with both hands.  Clumsily he slicked himself and lined up.  Mira fisted his hair in one hand and all but demanded kisses as Sami slid home.  Sami groaned his pleasure into his lover's mouth as he felt Mira clamp tightly around him.

Vaguely he could here Lauri moaning, the superheated moans he only made when his wife had his prick in her mouth and was tormenting him.  Before long the man would break and he have Amie screaming his name.

Sami groaned and rolled his hips hard.  He wanted Mira to cry out like that, the breathless cry of his name just stirred his blood hotter.  He held Mira's hips fast and thrust harder as he savaged his lover's neck with kisses and bites.  He could feel Mira's hands fisting in his hair, feel his legs wrapping around his hips as Mira struggled to match his desire.  Sami panted and struggled to hang on as his lust pooled and burned in his belly.

Mira thrashed under him and screamed his name as he came, and those hard convulsions ripped Sami's finish from him with a strangled cry.

He buried his face in Mira's neck and panted as he listened to Amie scream for Lauri, and from further down the longhouse heard Cherie pleading with Torstig as he drove her those last few steps to blissful madness.

Sami was content to snuggle back down and sleep again, well, content to simply lay his head on Mira's chest and listen to his heartbeat anyway.

~0~

Sami held Mira tightly and quietly thanked the gods that this time the only damage was the loss of half of Mira's braid.  His lover had moved to shove Lauri out of the way of that bastard Welshman's axe.  A breath later and Lauri's birds were dive-bombing the man and Iason was ensuring the insult to his brother's husband and their Skald was repaid in a way that was unforgettable.

Of course the man **_died_**, but Sami wasn't unhappy with that.  He didn't think Amie would be unhappy to hear it either when she was told.  But Amie was pregnant and Lauri had been seeking appropriate pretties for his coming child and his mother.

It was just bad luck that the place they chosen to raid by sea was getting raided by land at the time they appeared.

But if nothing else it was letting them loot some decent armor and weapons as well as the usual lot of beasts and grain.

Atti had been flattened by the Calling and found his match in the apprentice to the village healer. 

Saying she'd been less than enthralled with his attention was rather understating things

It had taken three men to dose the woman and she'd kicked Atti in the balls at least twice before the dose took effect.

Atti hadn't even bothered to go out and try and loot anything else, he just curled up by his bunk and tried to get his wind back.  It was Yu and Julian who looted the hovel the woman had been living in with her teacher of anything useful.

They'd grimaced at the waste.  The Welsh raiders had slaughtered a lot of folk who could have rebuilt, and set fire to a number of the thatched homes.  Some they'd put out, but most it simply wasn't worth the effort.

Sami had blinked when Yu came back aboard apparently empty handed and then turned to accept a small bundle, then another and another.  After a moment Sami realized what Yu and Jussi had done.

They'd gathered up the surviving children and infants.

It was only half a dozen youngsters and one slightly older boy who was insensible with a bloody cut to his head.  But enough little ones that some women who had been longing for children would have them.

Sami stroked Mira's hair and watched as Lauri and Torstig sang the Dragons away from shore and left the burning wreckage to whatever survivors had escaped to the trees.

~0~

Atti was at his wits end.  The woman he'd snatched was being difficult, and only gave them marginal cooperation for the sake of the children.  She'd refused to give any of them her name, and they'd only learned it from the older child when he'd called it in surprise when he'd wakened.  Tash refused to speak to any of them, kicked Atti smartly any time she could and if she'd been allowed her herb bag would likely have poisoned the lot of them for pure spite.

Sami watched and was profoundly amused.  The little woman wasn't spectacular to look at, small and brown, brown hair cut far too short, brown eyes and brown tunics that hid her figure.  She was curvy enough that Atti would have a great deal of pleasure once she consented.  But right now she wasn't and Atti was going crazy.

They'd done three more small raids and were moving back up the coastline to do a bit of trading.  Lauri still hadn't found the gift he wanted for Amie and they needed to find a few things to help keep the little ones healthy for their trip back to the Holding.  Even if she'd been nursing there was no way one woman could feed five babes.  They had to get the making of a better pap and mash to feed them.

They'd lost one of the three infants only a few hours after they'd set out to sea and Torstig and Lauri had sung the little one to her rest in the sea god's arms.  Tash had looked at them very strangely when they'd built a burial boat for the little one and filled it with goods to take with her into the afterlife.  She'd reach Othar's Hall and the women there would know she'd been a valued child, even if she was just a tiny thing.  The rest of their stolen ones were doing well enough.  Yu kept hovering over the eldest, and was teaching the boy the language with a little help from an amused Julian.

Tash hadn't been pleased with how the little ones were being passed from hand to hand, but the men were happy enough to hold, feed and mind the little ones.  Most had young ones at home and Risto in particular was a good man with tiny babies.

Sami felt his ears prick when he heard Tash question Mira.

“Why do you stay with these beasts?”

Mira blinked and tucked a loose strand of hair behind his ear.  It came loose more easily from his shortened braid.

“They are just men.”

“Raping beasts wearing the faces of men.”

Mira cocked his head.

“Who?”

Tash blinked at him in confusion, then scowled.

“Raiders are beasts.”

“Uther's men prefer not to destroy in a raid.”

“Then why where my folk slaughtered?”

“That wasn't by Uther's men.”

That got Mira a wary and disbelieving look.

“That fool, he doesn't understand no.”

“Atti is under the influence of the Calling.  Has he actually done you harm?”

Another wary look and a black glare was shot back where Atti was curled up at the stern with one of the smaller children in his lap.

“No.”  The word was grudging.  Then Tash turned her eyes back on Mira.  “He just is underfoot, touching and things.”

Mira smiled and Sami felt himself smiling back as his love looked back at him.

“They are like that; the gods' Calling makes them a little stupid.”

“Hey!”  Torstig protested, puffing his chest out in indignation.

“Says the man whose stolen wife did all in her power to geld him before he was able to convince her of his sincerity.”  Mira's tone was dry, as if he hadn't done his best to drive Sami away in his turn.

Torstig suddenly got a silly grin on his face and proceeded to wax rather eloquently about Cherie's virtues.  His recital made Tash grimace, but Torstig was rather graphic in describing the 'dancing' his wife did.

“Besotted.  Besotted and a fool.”

“Yes, well, my sister loves him anyway.”

“Sister?  He didn't rape her?”

Mira shook his head.

“Crawled into her bed and begged times beyond number, crept up behind her to try and hold her, even followed her around the Holding singing but never forced her under him.”

Tash blinked and stared back at Atti as he lay back on the deck and cradled the sleeping child on his chest.  She'd tired herself playing with the gold ring he used to tie his dark hair neatly back from his face.

Given the child had dark brown hair and a slightly square little face she easily could have been Atti's own get.  And a man dozing with a child held tenderly to his chest was hardly the picture of a bloody minded and cruel raider.

“And yours never forced you?”

Sami felt his ears burn when Mira smiled at him.

“He was insistent once, but had I said no he would have stopped.”

Tash considered that as she stared down at the light shackles on her wrists.

Mira left her to her thoughts and caught one of the other little ones as he tried crawling for the rail yet again.

~0~

Sami had been trading for sugar and salt when Risto found him.  He concluded his deal, arranged delivery and turned to his breathless friend.

“Someone took Mira.”

Sami felt like he'd taken a blow to the skull.

“What?”

“Torstig saw a lot of Normans lurking around.  Three of them grabbed Mira and carried him off.”

Sami followed Risto as they half ran back toward to Dragons.

“Where, when?”

“He was coming back with Yu and Julian.  Julian is being treated for a knock to the head by Atti and said Yu was following.”

~0~

What Risto hadn't told him was that Torstig had taken a slash to his shield arm and a knock to the head of his own.  Atti's neat stitches had closed the shallow wound and like Julian, Torstig now was getting kept awake and his lumps got poulticed while the rest of the band waited for Lauri's birds to bring any word.

Sami paced in circles and desperately wanted to be chasing down the bastards who had stolen his Mira from him.

~0~

Yu settled on the ridge and rested his chin on his folded arms as he watched the camp below.  One of the men looked rather like a taller, broader, dark haired version of Mira.  If he hadn't known that Mira's sire was dead he'd have thought the man Mira's father.

He'd been following for almost a week now as the group moved over land and only now as they neared the coastline again were they slowing down.  Yu wished Julian was with him, but at the same time was glad he wasn't.  Having his lover safe with his own kin was a comfort, and it meant when one of Lauri's great birds found him with a scrip of parchment he could scribble a few runes and know that Julian would understand more than just what he wrote when he sent the Ravens back.

Their stopping near the coastline was a good thing, if they stayed near the sea or on a river the Dragons could get to them easily.

Yu's eyes narrowed as he watched Mira being dragged before the other leader, the one he resembled so much.  The last few meetings hadn't gone so well.

The first one Mira had been backhanded smartly and Yu had watched as his silver hair was brutally cut to just past his shoulders and the silver ornaments Sami had braided in with such love and care were left in the dirt when they left.  Yu had carefully gathered them up and tucked them away in his pouch.  Mira would want them again when they got him back, even if it would be awhile before he could wear them again.

The second and third meetings it looked like the big war leader was telling Mira something, ordering him to do something and Mira was refusing.  Both times Mira had been cuffed smartly and when they'd moved on been tied in his saddle.

Yu winced to see that.

Mira wasn't the best rider, and being tied, feet to stirrups and hands to pommel, made it hard for him to move with the animal.  And the pace they set was far from easy.  Only one of his captors appeared to be taking any care for his well-being and that young man had taken a cuff or three of his own as he tried to do his duty without being a right bastard about it.

Something that had surprised Yu was that anyone who tried to take the torc from around Mira's neck yanked his hand away as if it was burned, and that had provoked the big war leader into beating one man already.  He'd backhanded Mira to the ground and screamed at him and then they'd been off again.

If he'd been closer, or had a bow, the big man would have been dead.

As it was Yu kept his head down and watched.

~0~

Tash watched and was heartily confused.  The blond, Sami, was heartbroken and clearly not thinking very clearly now that his partner was gone.  The rest of the war band had been stirred up like a nest of angry hornets and as soon as all the men were back aboard they'd set out.  She was half convinced that if they'd any goods left ashore they would have left them behind, but all their deliveries had been made before the last few men had been found.

Well, all but one.

The Picti hadn't come back aboard.  But the thin dark haired man, Julian, didn't seem worried about his lover.  And every time one of that Bard's great black monsters in the guise of ravens came winging in he'd smile.

He'd read whatever messages were on those tiny scraps of hide and the ships would adjust course.  But as far as she could tell they were working on more information than just what came on those little bits of leather. Whoever had taken Mira was going overland and they were going on the sea.  Tash just didn't understand how they knew their course.

Atti watched her puzzle things out and come to the conclusion she didn't have enough information.  He held one of the babies in his arms and had been soothing the child's gums where she had teeth erupting with a bit of liquid from one of his pottery bottles.

“Lauri is a Raven Skald.  His birds can speak to him, and lend him their eyes.  If he asks it they can convince normal birds to lend him their eyes as well.”

Tash shuddered.  That explained so much of how they'd known the way up from the sea to their village.  How they'd been able to find their way past the seaward defenses, few though they'd been.

“Why are you going after him, he's just a captive slave.”  Tash knew her tone was bitter.  She'd been a slave before, but her last master had been kind, unlike the one before him.

Atti's smile was sad, and that confused her even more.

“No.  Mira is the husband of Sami, the well-loved husband.  The gods pushed them together and Sami will go to Hella to get him back.  Nikki would do the same for Freyja and Uther for Ylsa.  When the gods show us our mates we do all in our power to get them and keep them.”

'She glared at him.

“And you think I'm your match.”

The smile he gave her wasn't reassuring.

“I know it.  I'm just waiting for you to accept it.”

~0~

Morgan wasn't sure what to think of the cousin her father wanted her to marry.  His hair was as silver as her father's Ghillie, but his face was no older than hers. He was fair enough to look on, if more slender than any of her father's guardsmen.

Not that it mattered; she had no desire to marry him.  Mother had made father promise, swear on holy relics that he wouldn't force her to wed against her will.

But he kept insisting that she spend time up in the tower he had Alexander locked up in. 

She went, but mostly to escape the twittering of her maids, half of whom she was sure were angling to get into her father's bed and produce her yet another bastard sister.  Not that any of the last three had survived past infancy.  She'd all but given up on the idea that she'd get to be a sister.

Alexander had his shackled hands resting on the sill on the window that faced the sea.  Today he'd been dressed in long tunics of blue trimmed in woven bands of yellow and white.  He'd refused the soft boots that went with the tunic, and Morgan could just see the bottoms of his hosen under the hem of the heavy woolen under tunic.  How he could cope with bare feet even with the carpets on the floor she had no notion.  Her feet were freezing in her woolen slippers and heavy stockings.

The heavy belt made of plates of figured gold hugged the tunics in to his slim frame, but Morgan saw the scabbard that should have held a dagger was still empty.  She saw that he'd finally allowed his serving women to set the thin gold circlet on his head to keep his fine hair out of his eyes but that the only other jewels he wore were the odd necklace with dragons heads around his neck, the two golden rings in his ears and the strange green ring he wore on his right thumb. And all of those had been in place when he'd come.

She moved up beside him and looked out the window as well.  She tried her best to ignore the fact that the shackles binding her cousin's wrists were easily worth half her late mother's dower, being as they were solid gold.

She might think her father's advisors were mad, but she had already noticed that the bogs around their Mott weren't trying to creep in and steal the place back again now that Alexander was here.  So perhaps there was something to their babblings about having a proper male heir in place to convince the curse on the land to ease up.

Maybe if her Uncle had been sensible and not angered a great witch he'd have still been alive to rule.  It just wasn't wise to make a promise to a witch and then break it.  It had taken father almost ten years to reclaim the Mott from the bogs and convince the local tribes to submit to his rule.

“What do you see out there?”  She asked every day, and every day Alexander would tell her what he saw.

“I see three fishing boats coming in, and gulls circling above them.  There will be fish on your father's table tonight, but mourning in the village below.”

Morgan peered out at the waves.  She only saw water and a few birds.  But she'd learned that if Alexander said he saw something it was out there.  She'd laughed when he said he saw a trading vessel, she'd seen nothing, but at dawn the next day, hidden in the early mists that wreathed the Mott, a trader laden with fine things had been just off shore.

“I will not marry you,” she blurted.  Alexander only smiled and turned to look at her.  Morgan blinked to see eyes so green looking down at her.

“That's just as well.  I could not marry you, even if I wished to.”

Morgan blinked.  Had her father made his plan without thinking of any wife Alexander already had?  Her cousin was attractive enough that he likely had had many women flinging themselves at him.

“You have a wife?”

The smile was strange, as was his answer.

“I have a spouse, yes.”

Morgan pouted.

“I suppose she has hair of gold and ruby lips.”

Alexander looked back out the window, focusing his gaze on something in the sky.

“Hair more like honey, and eyes blue as the sky.”

“I still won't marry you.”

“That may not stop your father's plotting.  He wants this place.  And is willing to do anything to have it.”

Morgan felt her eyes narrow.

“Father vowed to mother on her deathbed he would not force me to wed against my will.”

Those green eyes were back on her.

“Somehow I don't think vows will make any difference.  He values mine not at all.”

This conversation was making her uncomfortable, so Morgan decided to ask a question that had been nagging her.  The rumors in the Mott and village had been making her terribly curious.

“Why do you wear that funny necklace?”  Up close it looked very heavy with its braided bands of gold and its ornately figured dragons heads roaring at each other.

“Only the hand that set it in place may remove it.”  The way Alexander reached up to stroke gentle fingers over one of the dragons made Morgan think of how some of her women touched tokens given them by their husbands and lovers.

“So your wife? But what if they die?”

Alexander's eyes narrowed.

“Then I wear it until _I_ die.”

Morgan huffed and was just opening her mouth to ask about the ring when one of her maids burst in.

“Lady Morgan, Lord Howard wishes your presence in the great hall.”

Morgan huffed and turned away from the window.  But then she stopped one of her father's guardsmen was standing with Yseult.

“Lady, he wants you and the young Master, now Lady.”

The guard had already moved and firmly taken Alexander's elbow and was giving him sharp instructions.  Morgan couldn't read the flash behind her cousin's eyes but she saw how he moved to pull on the soft boots he'd refused earlier.  Then the man grasped Alexander's arm again and led him out of the room.  Morgan huffed again and with a kick to her heavy skirts followed.

~0~

Morgan felt her unease rise up to boil in her throat when she saw some of the men in her father's hall.  Many were their near neighbors, men of power, men that owed her father favors.

Men who if he had his way would be calling him king.

She lifted her chin and moved across the rushes and took her place before her father, sweeping him a proper curtsey and staying gracefully poised with her skirts pooled around her until he gave her leave to rise.

Alexander made no to move to bow in any way, and Morgan could hear the mutters that bit of insolence caused.  Then when Alexander's hands rose to a spot before his chest the murmurs rose.  With his hands down his shackles were almost hidden in the long sleeves of his tunic.  Raised in ritual gesture the sleeves slid back and showed he was here only because he was chained and dragged here.  Her father had no use for the fashion of sleeves so snug they had to be sewn in place every morning and cut free every night, but now clearly he wished he'd bowed to the silly fashion.

“I see you Howard, son of Ulstead.”

Morgan shivered.  Alexander's tone was calm, cool and as distant as the priestess her father had installed only weeks after her mother's death, ousting the priest she'd had.

The way her father's eyes narrowed made her shiver again.  But the priestess had narrowed her eyes for a reason of her own.

“Howard, why do you drag your nephew before you in chains?”

Morgan suddenly was very afraid.  Her father had a temper and she could see it rising just by how his jaw jumped. Alexander couldn't have timed his insolence worse.  Bad enough to give her father sauce in private where he could strike you without losing face.  In public, oh in public he had to stay his hand, and that meant later in private it would fall all the heavier.

“My beloved nephew insists he cannot stay and do his duty to his people.”  His eyes swept over the gathered men in the hall.  “He claims he is wed to some northern bitch and cannot wed my daughter as is proper.”

Morgan wanted to scream that he'd promised, but managed to stifle the cry in her hands.  She shrank back when the old woman swept forward.  If she could have she'd have stepped away so that not even the hem of the priestess' gown touched her.

“Howard tells me you are Alexander.”

Her cousin inclined his head respectfully to the old woman.

“I did not know that name Lady, until he and his men had taken me.”

“What are you called then child?”

Morgan kept her hands over her mouth in her nerves.

“Mira lady.  After my mother's name.”

“Your mother?”  The priestess circled around Alexander, looking him over carefully, her sharp and strange many colored eyes taking in the strange necklace, the ring and things Morgan had no notion of.  For she knew she was staring into her cousin's soul.

“Amirra of the Mists, Lady.”

That name provoked murmurs and a great deal of shifting among the gathered men.

It also made the old woman come to a sharp halt and stare intently into Alexander's eyes.

Whatever she saw there had her nodding.

“You are bound then?”

The smile Alexander gave her gave Morgan the chills.

“I am bound and free, Lady.”

Morgan risked a glance out into the crowd and blinked when she realized several men who had been there had either walked out, or were shifting toward the doors.

A glance back at her father and she edged a bit further away.  He was seething.

The priestess nodded sharply and turned back to her father.

“Your plan will not progress this way.  The one he is bound to will come for him.”

Her father ground his teeth and growled.

“I'll not set aside my lands for some whey faced northern wench.”

“Then you will suffer the same folly as your brothers.”

With that the old woman turned and walked out, and many more of the men followed with uneasy looks back over their shoulders.

~0~

Yu watched the mass of men leaving, and cocked his head in curiosity.  They were leaving in an almighty hurry, many even going so far as to leave with only what they could carry on their persons and on horseback.

Curious.

He ducked back into the shelter of the reeds when he saw the war leader who had snatched Mira away come storming out, roaring in rage after a slender old woman gowned in a purple that made Yu itch with greed.  He'd love to have a length of that color silk to wrap his Julian in.

Then he was going as still as the marsh birds as the woman walked directly out into the unsteady footing of the bog.  The man was left roaring after her as she walked away, passing near enough to Yu's hiding spot that he could have touched the hem of her gown without moving his hand more than a fingers breadth.

She stopped, and Yu held his breath.

“Hear me Howard, son of Ulstead.  Your plan will fail you and like your brothers in blood and greed you will be swallowed up by this land.  Cursed this land has been and cursed it shall remain, cursed once by the broken oath to guard for the Heir, cursed twice by the broken oath to liege men and wife and cursed three times by oaths broken twice more to wife, daughter and blood.  The waters will claim this place and your bones will rot within it.”

Yu heard the man scream and saw him rip a spear from the hands of one of his guardsmen to fling it out at them.

But the mists suddenly thickened and the old woman was down beside him chortling in glee as the spear flew past and missed entirely.

Yu barely kept the squeak of surprise behind his teeth as he found himself looking into a very familiar pair of eyes.

This woman had the same change color eyes as Lauri's Amie.

Yu blinked at the woman as she muttered.

“There, that ought to set a proper cat amongst his pigeons.”

Yu blinked again and boggled when she slipped the purple mantle from around her own shoulders and wrapped it over his.

“Tell my granddaughter to name her daughter for me.”  Then with a kiss to his forehead she was up and gone, walking deeper into the mists.

Yu blinked stupidly after her and stayed there still and shocked until Hwurr came and pecked him sharply on the ear.

~0~

Sami paced and fretted.  The mists had thickened and without the magic of their Skalds and Lauri's clever birds they'd have run aground long ago.

Yu had sent a note with Hwurr that he'd see them soon.  But Julian had looked at the scrip with a puzzled look on his face.  And Sami would have given half his weight in silver to know what else Julian had read from that scrap of leather that put that perplexed look on his face.

Sami heard something land on the deck and spun in place only to have Yu pop up under his nose and make him flail backwards with a yelp.

Then he was sitting on his ass and glaring up at the Picti as he wrapped something around Julian mere moments after the man pounced his lover.

And that something was purple, purple with a silvery fur lining, and just from the richness of the color alone was probably worth three times its weight in gold.

Iason let out a snort and tried to hide his snickers under a cough.

“I see our Picti has looted a fine treasure for Julian again.”

Sami couldn't stop the faint plaint of, “But what news of my treasure?”

Yu smiled and squatted down to grin impishly into Sami's face.

“Mira is well. Chained in gold, but still your proud one.  The fool who took him has offended his men.  Even now they abandon him, his thralls creep away from their work and flee into the marshes and he shrieks to those few that remain to find him a White Christ man to wed his daughter to the one he has chosen.”

Sami was confused, and from the queries of the rest of the war band, many of the rest were curious now as well.

Yu settled in and told his tale, all the while stroking Julian's dark hair.

~0~

Tash was confused.  The Picti had appeared on the deck like he'd been conjured there and had a fine cloak in silver miniver and heavy purple silk to wrap around Julian.  The story he told of following the men who had taken Mira made her sick.  Bad enough to be taken as a slave, worse to be taken and told you would wed and produce children to be slaves to a man who shared their blood.

She felt sorry for the poor girl.  At least in her lot Tash knew what the score was, that poor high born girl had no notion that her happiness meant less than that of her meanest maidservant.

Her lowliest maid might well be happier.  At the very least her lowliest maid wouldn't have her maidenhead sold for more land.  If the poor thing still had her maidenhead.  Servants didn't have much more right to say 'no' to the master than a slave.

Tash checked on the children where they slept safe in the Dragon that by common accord was kept furthest out.

So they could escape should things go badly.  Not that any of the men expected things would go that badly.  They'd planned for three days before they'd moved the Dragons here.  And now after a further three days of careful skulking around the lands and castle and more detailed planning they were finally making their move.

Atti had insisted she stay on the boat with the children.  When she'd made a sharp remark about him not wanting his plunder lost he'd cupped her face in his hands and with an earnestness that took her breath away sworn he only wanted her safe.

Then he'd kissed her and she'd been left staring after him with him, fingers on her tingling lips wondering when her world had upended so sharply.

She'd just finished tucking the eldest under a blanket when she heard some of the men moving something heavy above and when it didn't stop after a few moments she'd gone to look.

Tash blinked in shock when she found Nikki and Jyrki carefully moving a large coffer chest down into the hold to set it with some of the goods they'd plundered and traded for before they'd come chasing this wild goose.  She poked her head above deck and gaped at the thick swirlings of white and gray mist.

The fog was thickening.  But even through the fog she could see bags and sacks and coffers of many sizes piled on the deck and if she squinted she could see the war band moving more from the Dragon nearest the shore across the central one to this one.  How they could walk the narrow planks connecting the three Dragons she had no idea.  Just the thought made her queasy.

Some signal she didn't see and they stopped bringing their boxes and bales back to the boat she was on and started piling it on the second boat.

Jyrki gently but firmly moved her out of the way and the half dozen men swarmed like three times their number stowing away their plunder.

It had to be plundered.

They couldn't have come upon a Holding left completely abandoned, not one with so much wealth.

Could they?

~0~

Morgan had protested, had begged her father to change his mind and when that failed had wept and railed at the walls and her few remaining women.

Nothing changed.

She'd seen her cousin struck several times and once had him step between her and her raging father when it looked like he was going to turn and strike her.

Now she watched as her father’s few remaining men hauled a priest in the gate.

It looked like it might even be the man her father had turned out after her mother's death.

The dirt streets of the village below the Mott were deserted.  Not even the least of the vassals had been seen outside their hovels in over a week.  Most of her father’s men had abandoned him; the ones who hadn't left immediately after the old witch declaring the Mott to be thrice cursed had slipped away one or two at a time in the night.  Even the cook and his two helpers had left, leaving only two very old women in the kitchen to prepare their meals.

Even Morgan's women had left; the only ones staying were the three who had nowhere else to go.  Yseult, Dwen and Allisse were all she had left.  She hadn't even been allowed up to Alexander's tower room since her father had ordered a priest be found and brought to him.

Morgan watched the men all but drag the poor priest into her father's hall.

Her father had his priest.  Now she was terrified that she knew what he intended.

~0~

Mira rested his hands on the window sill and watched as shadowy figures stole through the mists below.  He'd seen ravens circling in the mists as well and had smiled. 

Howard no longer had enough servants left to have one to spare to come and force him to dress, but one of the few remaining arms-men came in every morning.  Ostensibly he was to force him to dress his station, in reality he eased the shackles as best he could and told Mira what he could of the goings on below.  When he was alone Mira was to be kept chained.  And this man, Brandon, had done his best to be kind to him when he'd been taken.  He'd eased Mira's bindings as best he could, brought him liniment to ease his cramping legs and food when Howard raged and tried to starve him into submission.  He'd even brought him one of the beads Sami had braided into his hair on a length of braided silk embroidery thread and apologized for not being able to pick up the ring or more of the ornaments.  Mira had thought them all lost when his hair was shorn short and took some comfort in being able to hide the one under his tunics and over his heart.  Brandon was a good man; he just had nowhere else to go.  He'd been left utterly dependent on Howard's good will when his father had died in the bastard’s service.

He'd dressed in the tunic and trews of heavy white samite that had been chosen for him and for once hadn't argued with the ridiculous ornaments Howard demanded.

Mira had seen the poor priest Howard's men had dragged in two days before.  But he'd also seen familiar shapes darting through the mists and kept tugging on the threads of magic he could feel under the land.  The mists would stay heavy for as long as he willed them to be and there wasn't a thing Howard could do to stop him.

There wasn't a thrall left in the Holding below and only a double handful of men, many of which had nowhere else to go and thus their loyalties were somewhat questionable if things came to a fight.

“White doesn't suit you at all.”

Mira jumped and turned to face the other window.  His face lit to see Yu crouched on the wide sill.  But the Picti wasn't done.

“You look better in the blue, or the green.  White makes you look like a spirit.”  Yu hopped off the sill and wrapped deceptively thin arms around Mira in a hug.

“Yu.”  Mira leaned into the thin man and shuddered in relief.  His mind hadn't been playing tricks on him.  He had been seeing Sami's brothers moving through the mist, systematically looting this holding of all its valuables.

“Sami misses you.”

“I miss him.”  Mira felt his throat close up when Yu fished in his pouch and came up with a heavy silver ring, the ring that had held his hair.  It wasn't the one that he'd worn when Sami had initially stolen him, that one he thought was lost left somewhere in the countryside after Howard had ordered his hair be 'made seemly' and been chopped off just past shoulder length and left in the dirt with the silver ornaments Sami had taken such joy in braiding into it.  It wasn't even the overly ornate thing Sami put into his hair when they had visitors coming or staying in the Holding, that was figured in fish and set with sea emerald and black pearls.  This ring was a dragon chasing its own tail, its eyes set with winking green gems.  His hair was still long enough to wear it, but only just.  The bits by his face still fell free of the ring.

Yu helped him tie his hair mostly back with a bit of soft leather, then place the ring and set the silver skewer through to hold the ring secure.

His uncle could go hang.

Yu had just broken the locks on his shackles when they heard footsteps outside.  Mira shoved Yu under the heavy bed and turned just as two of Howard men came in, neither one a man Mira was happy to see. Brandon was likely in the hall below keeping the poor priest from running away.

At least his shackles still looked like they were confining his wrists.

Mira hissed under his breath as they roughly caught his arms and striped the shackles off to force him into another ridiculous over tunic, this one heavily embroidered with gold threads and set with rubies enough to ransom at least half of the Holding back home.  They shoved him into an open over robe that was also absurdly overdone and clasped the shackles back on.  Mira held his breath, they latched, but didn't lock, the left one barely even clasped and he was being very careful to keep it from falling open.  Then they ordered him into the silly boots and after he'd pulled them on dragged him out of the room.

Mira looked back and saw Yu's grey eyes peering out from under the drapes of heavy silk and fine wool around the bed and knew before his captors had him three lengths down the stairs that the rest of the war band would know what was happening.

And if he knew Yu, a good many of the jewels and fine hangings would go out the window, just for spite.

The very idea made him smile.

~0~

Morgan let Yseult and Dwen dress her and did her level best to not break down into sobs.  She was wearing a fortune in white samite, cloth of gold and jewels, but wished with all her heart to be in her simple wool and silk gown.  When she was dressed she sat and let Allisse braid strings of pearls into her dark hair.  There were no flowers for a crown for her hair, but her father had made her a coronet of gold and gems that mimicked one.  He'd had to have had it done months upon months ago; there were no artisans to do even a simple version now.  And it was nothing like her mother's simple circlet of silver with pink pearl flowers

She was going to her wedding, and she wanted nothing more than to fling herself out her window.

A sword point wedding and she was still a maid.  Morgan bit her lip and mutely followed her women down to her father's hall and her fate.  At this point she knew it was go on her own two feet of be beaten half senseless and carried down to the altar.

She still had her pride, so she went on her own two feet.

~0~

Sami growled when he saw his Mira dragged in and planted in front of a clearly rather reluctant, priest.  He felt Torstig holding him on one side and Iason the other.  Both probably sure he was going to go storming out to lay claim to his spouse and be damned the arms-men in the way.

Not that there were all that many men left, maybe twenty or so, not including the handful of old men who really had no business with the pikes they had in their hands.  He'd be surprised if either of the nearer two could see anything beyond the reach of their arms at all clearly.

Sami seethed when he saw Mira's wrists were shackled, the fact they looked to be gold didn't soothe his fury at all.  His mood went even blacker when he saw the girl his Mira was supposed to be married off to.

At least until the girl turned and he could see her face.  Then he was dependent on his brothers to stay upright as his knees went wobbly.

Her face was more heart shaped and her eyes and hair were brown, but the features were enough like his Mira's that she could be his sister.

A second later and Sami was hanging onto Iason as he half lurched forward.  If Wulf hadn't been on Iason's other side they might well have lost him then.  As it was it was a fight to keep Iason in place and silent.  Sami quietly thanked his Mira for the gloves he'd made for him this fall.  They were all that kept his brother from biting him to get free to shout.

The priest stuttered into a very abbreviated version of the wedding rites the followers of the White Christ used.  Clearly the man was in a bit more fear of the axe-man behind him than he was of his god's wrath.

The ritual question had barely passed the priest's lips before Iason was ripping free of Sami and Wulf and yelling that he was _damn **well**_ objecting to the wedding.

Had he been that bad when he'd first seen Mira?  A glance at Wulf and Sami winced. But he didn't have time to ponder the pained look on the old warrior's face.  Lauri was yelling 'go' and they had the perfect distraction with Iason storming up the center of the hall swearing that the frightened but proud girl standing next to Mira was his.

~0~

Mira blinked when he heard Iason yell that by Othar's Spear no one was having Morgan but him.  Morgan was staring at Iason with a shocked look on her face, clearly too stunned at seeing a Northman in his hauberk and helm stomping up the center of her father's hall to even consider that it might be wise to run.  Then again, he hadn't exactly run away from Sami that first meeting either.

Of course everyone else in the hall was gaping in shock as well, so when the arras covering the walls came down and the rest of his war party erupted out ready for mayhem the men couldn't be more shocked than they already were.

~0~

When the war band exploded into motion Mira had blinked.  Iason was stomping up the center of the hall and from the pained looks on the faces of some of the older men it wasn't planned.  He still had to smile at the determined look on Iason's face as he declared, quire loudly, that Morgan was _his_.

Howard recovered the quickest and roared something Mira didn't quite understand.

He also didn't much care.  He slipped the cuff that Yu had broken and swung hard up at the chin of the man who insisted on being called his 'Lord Uncle.'

The heavy gold cuff caught him under the chin and sent him stunned to the ground before Iason got close enough to flatten him with the flat of his axe.

Of course, then Morgan screamed.  But Iason already had an arm around her and was not going to let go.

Mira snorted in amusement when he saw Wulf simply clip the one decent man he knew up behind the ear and heft him up over his shoulder.  But Brandon had been standing there looking horribly torn and hadn't even pulled his sword free of its scabbard.  Brandon would have a headache, but would wake none the worse for wear. Then again he'd been the only one to even try and put himself between Morgan and the raiders.  The rest of Howard's men were fairing far worse and a good quarter of them were only trying to escape.

He ducked and was scanning the melee for Sami when he heard Morgan scream again.  She was reaching toward one of her women as they were being dragged away.  Then he saw Sami and turned away and closed his eyes.

Then he was being swept up in familiar arms and being carried off.

But this time Mira went willingly.

~0~

Tash boggled when the men started coming back again.  She'd thought by now they'd have looted the place to bare timbers.  But Yu had come back three times, grinning like a madman and carrying small but heavy coffers pilled in a barrow.  The fourth time he came back he was carrying what looked like a bed sheet and it looked to be filled near to bursting with clothing and fine bedding.  The fifth and sixth time it was more of the same.

But the seventh time he came back with a load of things that were clearly women's clothing.  And not just any woman's gowns either. These were the gowns of a very wealthy Lady.

Then Iason had come back cradling a girl who looked enough like Mira to be his sister.  The poor thing had either been dosed with Atti's potions or had fainted.

Tash snorted.  Fat lot of good fainting did, it just let the barbarian carry you off more easily.  And this poor thing had clearly been about to be married off from the amount of jewels on her person.  That or these crazy southerners had more money than sense and used their women as a way of showing off how wealthy they were for visitors.

At least the poor lad Wulf brought back had just been clipped on the head.  Though Tash wasn't sure what to think of him, he was pretty enough with a head of dark curls, but why Wulf would have grabbed a boy, well, better not to think about it too hard.

Three more girls were carried aboard, and each was laid gently in a berth and shackled in place before being gently covered over.  And while all three were dressed very finely, none of them had the insane amount of jewels.

Iason though refused to leave his princess.  And from the fineness of her gown and jewels Tash was pretty sure the poor thing _was_ a princess.  She was measuring the girl with her eyes when Tash felt arms around her.

Tash jumped, and wanted to kick the man holding her, but then stopped and really **_looked_** at him.  Looked at him as a man and not the bastard who had stolen her.

He was middlingly tall, well muscled and rather square.  A square face, square jaw and cleft chin covered with a small neat beard.  Dark and mostly straight hair was confined neatly at the nape of his neck with a gold ring. Square hands clasped her close and his eyes were closed as his cheek rested on her shoulder.

He wasn't ugly, and she knew his eyes were the clear blue green of running water.

He shifted his balance automatically to compensate for the boat beginning to move and his steadiness kept Tash from stumbling and falling.

Tash heard the men above calling to one another and felt the man holding her sigh and reluctantly let her go.  She blinked when he stroked a hand over her hair, pressed a kiss to her temple and turned to go back above and return to his duties to the war band as a Healer.

But then one of the babies cried, and she had other things to think about.

~0~

Morgan woke feeling someone stroking her hair.  Slowly she opened her eyes; it felt like her bed was moving. Across from her she saw Alexander.  He was sleeping cradled against; Morgan gulped, cradled against one of the big raider's chests.  A big and broad man with hair the same clear honey gold as the best products of her father’s hives.  Her cousin was shirtless, as was the man he was sharing a bunk with and Morgan suddenly realized that her assumption that Alexander had a wife might have been wrong.

She started to sit up and found herself being securely held against another broad chest and felt her breath stutter when she felt nothing under her hands but warm bare skin and crisply curling hair.

Then she realized she was only in her shift and panicked.

It didn't get her anywhere.  That broad and solid chest was now pinning her securely down and she was staring up into a pair of slightly sleepy and very amused blue eyes.  Morgan gulped.

“Let me go,” the order didn't come out nearly as confidently as she'd hoped.  The man holding her chuckled and shifted down to lay his head on her breast.

“No.”

Morgan huffed and tangled both hands in the man’s long dark brown hair and yanked.  He lifted his head up and pouted at her.

Then Morgan realized she was in nothing but her shift and he was lying between her legs.

When she stopped thrashing he was still holding her, but he was whispering soft words in her ear and stroking her hair as she panted out the last of her panic.

And then she head Alexander whimper and turned to look.

The blond raider was kissing her cousin, touching him and Alexander was kissing him and touching him back.

Morgan let out a tiny squeak as the big raider rolled her cousin under him and began doing, doing _things_.  Things she knew about but had barely seen between man and woman and never seen between two men.

A gentle hand forced her to look away from where the blond was making Alexander writhe and cry out under him.  Morgan felt her breathing speed up again as she stared up into warm blue eyes.

“Shh, minun aarre.”

“Wha, what is he doing to Alexander?”

Her answer was a puzzled noise, then as soft 'ah' and a warm chuckle.  The chuckle made her try and strike the man with her fist.  He laughed again and caught her wrist; a wrist she realized was encased in a slender shackle and settled them down again.

“Sami is showing Mira how he was missed.  And I think Mira missed him just as much if his reactions are anything to go by.  He's not one to be caught loving when there are watchers normally.”

Morgan couldn't help peeking; the cries were gaining in intensity and were anything but pained.  The big man had reared back and was thrusting like he wanted his whole body to slide into Alexander's slighter one, he'd reached down and was stroking.  And Alexander had wrapped his legs tightly around the big man's waist and was clutching at his shoulders, gasping and letting out cries that sounded pleading, eager, even desperate.  She let out a little squeak and gulped when both men shuddered, Alexander first then the bigger man, and went limp.  The big man gently cuddled her cousin close and whispered words she couldn't understand.

She watched with wide eyes as they settled down again with the big man spooning up behind Alexander and blushed hotly when he caught her staring and smiled at her as he covered their naked bodies back up and cuddled in to sleep again.  She'd never seen Alexander so relaxed, not even that first night when she'd crept up to his tower prison to see him sleeping chained in his fine bed.

A soft chuckle was her only reward when she turned to hide her blushing face in the chest of the man who'd snatched her up from her place in her father's hall.

“Who, who are you?  Why do you attack my father, why,” Morgan fought down the sob.  “What are you going to do with me?”

She felt her captor shift and found herself lying across his chest as he held her and stroked her hair.

“My name is Iason, Iason son of Ulmar.  We attacked your father because he stole my brother's husband.” There was a soft sigh.  “And if we hadn't helped, Sami would have gone after him alone and I'd have had to explain it to his mother.”

Morgan felt the brush of lips over her hair before Iason continued.

“For the other, I intend to make you my wife.”

She was still puzzling out the brother comment.

“But if he,” she jerked her chin toward the bunk her cousin shared with Sami, “is your brother, why is his mother not your mother?”  She refused to think about being anyone's wife just yet. She'd only just escaped a sword point marriage to a man already wedded to another.

The chuckle she got was infuriating.

“We are shield brothers, battle kin.  My birth brother is Atti.  Father felt the Calling to a pair of twins and could never choose between them.  We were born within hours of each other.”

Morgan sat up to stare in shock down at the man under her.

“Your father has two wives?”

The flicker of sadness made her bite her lip for a moment fearing she'd overstepped somehow.

“Had.  My mother died of milk fever when Atti and I were six.  Father and Lyyli never recovered from her loss.”

Morgan's eyes went round.  Her mother had died of a fever, the one that burned a person's body up and consumed it from the inside out.

“I'm sorry.” Her voice was very small, but the arms holding her just hugged her closer.

“She'll be waiting in Othar's Hall for us.  And likely will tease father about being late, again.”

That left Morgan wondering.  Would her mother being waiting for father in Heaven?  And would he ever get there, or was mother doomed to always wait?

~0~

Tash chewed her knuckle and pondered what she'd learned.  She hadn't intended to eavesdrop on Iason and the princess he'd snatched, but listening to her questions and his answers was better than listening to Mira and Sami loving or the rattle of confused thoughts in her own head.

Not that what she'd just learned helped with any of the confusion.

Iason and the man who snatched her were brothers.  These barbarians, these Northmen considered twins to be one person, with two slightly different characters, in two bodies.  That was surprising; she'd thought only her birth people treated twins that way.  She was slightly reassured that Atti did truly intend to make her his wife; Iason's words had a ring of quiet sincerity to them when he'd murmured that reassurance to his frightened princess.

Tash's opinion of the girl went up slightly when she asked what would happen to her women and to the young guardsman Wulf had brought aboard. Not that she really could have done anything to back up her demand that they wouldn't be made slaves.  She had at least asked.

One of those women had already calmly informed one of the single men aboard that if he tried getting under her skirt again she'd geld him. That had set all the men to hooting in delighted laughter, even to the calling of bets, suggestions and encouragement between the three boats.  But Timo-timo seemed more embarrassed by his fellow’s words than by Dwen's reaction to his advances.

Dwen was doing her best to help with the children; the other two were next best thing to useless between their fear and their seasickness.  The guardsman was of more use, and he was shackled to a fair thee well to keep him from making any mischief.  And unless Tash missed her guess that young man was pure mischief, just the way his blue eyes sparked told her it was just as well he was chained.

But he had caught little Duncan when he'd gone for the rail again, and tickled the little one until he'd squealed.

Tash jumped when suddenly Atti was there with a bit of bread and cheese and a mug of something that smelled like tea.

“Have you eaten?”  He frowned when all Tash could do was gape at him, then he firmly pressed the food into her hands and insisted she eat and drink.  Once she'd eaten she felt sleepy and cursed herself for a fool for not thinking that he'd drug the tea that he'd shared with her.  But all he did was tuck her into his bunk and crawl in behind her.

Tash was struggling to stay awake when Yu crept by and covered them both over as he went on to the bunk he and Julian shared.

She lost her fight shortly after she heard Julian's little gasp of pleasure.

~0~

Sami watched Mira turn his face up to the sun and leaned down to drop a kiss behind one ear, then he spat a mouthful of fine silver hair out and growled.

“I look forward to your hair growing out.”

Mira just laughed at him.

“Less for you to comb out this way,” Mira teased as he snuggled back into Sami's arms.

“I liked combing your hair, and I ate less of it when it was long,” protested Sami with a low huff as he hugged his lover closer.  They were threading the fjords and within a few hours would be home, at least if the weather held.  And according to Lauri's birds things were clear in all directions for the next few days.

Sami let out a soft snicker as Iason got tangled up in the full skirts of his prize and had to flail his arms for balance.  Morgan huffed at him and walked, somewhat unsteadily, toward the bow.  If he wasn't mistaken the girl had _kicked_ her skirts under Iason's feet just to make him stumble. She wore Iason's torc decorated with sight hounds, but she hadn't consented yet, and if she was like Mira wouldn't for some time.

“Your cousin has enough cloth in her skirts for three tunics.”

Mira grinned and cuddled backwards a little to get under Sami's fur-lined cloak a little better.

“I think she wears them on purpose, just because Iason trips over them.”

Sami snickered, Mira did have a point.  Then he grinned as his brother took his own fur lined cloak and with a grumble about foolish women went stalking after Morgan to wrap his heaver cloak over her thinner woolen one.  Sami glanced to his left where Yu and Julian were curled up under their shared cloaks and whispering in the soft musical tones of Yu's birth tongue.  A little beyond them and two of Morgan's women were huddled together under woolen blankets looking pale and sick still.  Neither looked like they were at all happy, but seasickness would do that to a body, and both looked like they were cold.  A quick look around and Sami found the third woman, helping Atti's catch with the babies, and determinedly ignoring Timo-timo's attempts to get her into something a bit warmer.  His cloak had been used to wrap two of the sleeping children up and the poor man was beside himself wanting to wrap her up and protect her but utterly lost in how to get it to work when she wouldn't cooperate.

Sami lifted his eyes and checked the path higher up on the wall of the fjord.

Well and truly iced over.  No one but a mad or desperate man would be traveling over that path until spring.  And it was one of the Old Roads; they shed ice and snow better than a regular path did.

His eyes dropped down and he could see past Morgan and Iason as Iason pointed out the landmarks the marked their final turn up into their home.

Aethar had been busy; Sami squinted a bit and saw that the poured stone pilings that had been in this place since before time began had a new cedar decking laid over them.  The Holding's six fishing vessels were tied up neatly, as was a brightly painted Dragon he recognized at Linke's.  That would make life a bit more interesting.  Tahvo had been a bit steamed about Ilse's presumed pregnancy when they'd left.  It would be amusing to see which man of Tahvo's suspects had fathered her child.  Ilse had refused to discuss it, claiming her right to inform the father first as was common in unwed women.

Sami winced at all the ice at the shoreline and at how far up the shore the smaller boats had been dragged.  He held his breath a little as Jyrki called orders and the sails on all three Dragons were furled up and tied tightly.  Then the men sang the homecoming chants, and he grinned to see how wide the eyes of their treasures went as the boats moved powered only by will, magic and the deft hands of their steersmen slipped into the open places left for them, where the men on deck and the men running up the docks could secure them with ropes. Heavy bumpers of rope were dropped from the docks to keep the boats from rubbing and then they were pulled in close and tied.

Lauri was on the dock a step behind Torstig when the younger Skald leapt out to sweep his Cherie up in his arms.  When he'd processed what Cherie was babbling Lauri had to be held up by two of his fellows.

Atti had laughed and yelled for him to go on, that they'd see his gear and loots were delivered properly. He had a wife to hold and a son to welcome into the world.

~0~

Lauri felt like the world slid sideways under his feet, and if Yu and Julian hadn't been right behind him to help get the ramp in place to offload everything he'd had taken a tumble off the dock and into the sea.  As it was he'd been hauled forward and held upright as his brothers laughed at him and called congratulations.  Sami came up and pressed the small chest he'd filled with the smaller presents for his expectant wife and their unborn son and set it in his hands and then shoved him toward the Holding proper.

He stumbled a bit, but then caught his balance and was running, down the dock, and up the beach to the path.  Then he was charging up the path to the longhouses, ducking into the one he shared and staggering in the dimness down to the hearth area that was his own home.

Lauri almost dropped the chest when he saw Amie sleeping propped up in the bed they shared, her arms folded across her flat belly.

Then Ylsa was there with a tiny wrapped bundle.  He barely had set the chest down before Freyja and Ylsa were pushing him down to sit by his sleeping wife and handing him, not one but _two_ tiny wrapped bundles.

“We've found a wet nurse to help.” The words made no sense.  All Lauri could do was stare in shock down at the two tiny babies sleeping in his arms.

It was a good thing Ylsa and Freyja were ready, because after a moment his eyes rolled up in his head and Lauri, Raven Skald, fainted dead away.

~0~

Torstig yelped.

“Twins!  But, the birds picked the bones for a boy!”  Torstig boggled at Cherie then at the raven perched nearest him and then abruptly sat down.  The bird simply fluffed his feathers and looked profoundly amused.  Cherie looked exasperated.

“Idiot.  Ylsa explained it to me.  Lauri just asked the birds about the gender of his first born.  Which was a boy.  His sister came second.  None of you asked the birds if there was more than one.”

Torstig gulped, but had to admit none of them had bothered to ask the birds if there was more than one child resting under Amie's heart.  Then his eyes rested on Cherie's filling belly and panicked.

“You're only carrying one right?”  Any answer she made was lost under his babble as he scooped her up and carried her back to the longhouse, fretting the whole way about her taking a chill.

Behind him the rest of the war band fell over laughing themselves silly.  Even the men who had children had to laugh, even if theirs was rather more rueful, and filled with the memories of their own reactions to their first children's entries into the world.

Tash huffed and kept Duncan from crawling to the rail again.

“Men.”

~0~

Lauri scowled at Yu and hugged his wife a little tighter as she wept.

“What did you say?”

Yu blinked.

“I passed on a message.”

Amie sobbed again and hugged her daughter closer, then with a gasp managed to get out that it was alright.

Lauri huffed and glared at the Picti, who just crossed his eyes and stuck out his tongue.

“So what was the message?”  He hadn't made up his mind yet on whether or not to murder the blasted Picti yet for making his Amie cry.

“For her to name her first daughter after her mother's mother.”  Yu shrugged and made faces for Lauri's son.

“Amie?”  Lauri held his wife as she gasped out enough for him to piece together the story.  Apparently her grandmother had been the reason Amie had been at the Holding for Lauri to snatch her from, and the old woman was well beloved and very much missed. Yu's message had been like a gift from beyond the grave for Amie.  Proof that lost across path-less seas or not, her family did still love her and want her happy.

~0~

Tash hadn't been completely convinced of Atti's seriousness, not until she'd seen one of the Holding's visitors suddenly stagger as if he'd taken a blow to the head.  She'd then watched in shock as the man reached for Morgan's lone guardsman and snatched him up from where he had been powering the small millstone to grind grain.  The shocked look on Brandon's face when his  blue eyes caught Ville's green ones was very like the look on a man just as he was struck in the skull with a mace; shocked and disbelieving.

She blinked.  Well then, all their prattle about being taken by a Calling when they saw their lifemate wasn't so much mystic nonsense.

Her eyes strayed over to where the blasted man was feeding Bess, not that the girl would likely ever answer to the name now, not with that man calling her Katja.  She'd met his mother and Lyyli had promptly scolded Atti for not removing a slave collar when he'd found it.  His father, Ulmar had just sighed and gone after the cutting tools he kept at his forge.

Tash's neck still felt strange without the heavy bronze thing weighting her down.  She had something there, but the gold torc felt different somehow.

She'd been pleased to see the collar get smelted down into an inert lump.  Ulmar had shrugged and answered her unspoken question with a remark that at some point someone would need a buckle or pins or some such thing. Tahvo, his student, had made a rude noise and muttered something about reusing the metal for horse harness.

Tash also had met Atti and Iason's other siblings.  And their youngest sister was wistfully hoping that maybe next year she would be old enough to get stolen.  It had made Tash gape at her in shock, Reita was all of fifteen.  And she sounded like being stolen was a thing to look forward to.  Then Tash saw the young man she was so taken with.  He'd come with Ville and his lot of horse traders and they'd gotten stuck here either until things thawed out a little and they could take the land road home or until one of the larger boats carried them the long way around and dropped them off on the beach below their Holding.  He was watching Reita with intent blue green eyes and had already made his intent to steal her away, as soon as he had a proper place for her, very plain.  At least Tash thought it was rather plain, but perhaps she was mistaken.

Not that any of those half dozen men looked to be suffering for being away from home. All of them had been single.  Ville had just gotten flattened by their mystic get it together thingie and was happily making a racket with another man.  She grimaced and watched as another of those men began asking rather un-subtle questions about one of Morgan's women. Allisse didn't seem to quite know what to make of the man, or of the presents of pretty jewelry and fine cloth he brought her.

Of course Morgan's reaction to the man’s questioning had been hysterical.

She'd gone right up to the man and glared up into his face and full on demanded to know what his intentions where for her handmaiden.  He'd boggled at what to him was a tiny slip of a girl with her flowing southern woolen gown and the heavy fur cloak Iason had kept insisting on wrapping around her.  He'd hemmed and hawed a bit than finally managed to get out that he intended to steal her next spring to be his wife.  There'd been a great deal of hooting laughter at the man when he'd back pedaled away from Morgan when she lit into him about being certain Allisse was willing and would be taken care of properly.

The men weren't sure what to make of Morgan, but the women seemed both amused and quietly pleased.  Iason had just shrugged when some of his war band had hissed at him to take control of his wife and made a remark that on some things it was just best to get out of a woman's way, and failing that to just nod and say yes, dear.

Tash frowned a little when she saw Mira and Sami walking in together.

Just where had they been and why was Sami looking so quietly smug.

~0~

Sami had been terribly amused when Cherie went into labor.  Torstig had been a fine wet mess as he frantically tried to get in to see his wife.  And over and over again he was twisted about and sent back to wait.  Morgan and his own sister had tripped him, Jussi's sister had boxed his ears soundly and Mira had just turned him back around and given him a good shove.

None of that slowed him down when Cherie's screams stopped though.

And all of the Holding's men went quiet.  A woman in childbed stopping her cries so abruptly tended to not bode well.

The Holding had gone so quiet that all of them could hear Ylsa's somber words.

“You have a son, Skald.  But there will be no others from your wife.”

Lauri had been on his feet as had Sami and Atti when Mira came back out with a tired smile.

“Cherie lives, as does her son.”

Sami had let out a huge sigh of relief, echoed by almost every man in earshot, and hugged Mira tightly.  But he blinked in confusion when Mira looked over at Atti and commented.

“I think Healer, that you'd best have a chat with your earth wife.”

There was a long moment of silence as they processed that remark.  Atti just blinked several times, mouthed the words 'earth wife' in confusion and then gaped in shock as the meaning under those words came clear.

Then he fainted dead away and almost flattened Lauri as the Raven Skald tried to catch him.

~0~

Sami snickered in amusement as he watched Lauri's daughter cuddle one of the ravens that had been hovering over since before she was born.  If anyone else tried hugging a raven neck they'd get bloodied fingers for their trouble.  Mira had been letting Lauri's son chew his hair ring when they'd had a group of visitors come in.  One, an old man, had been chiding Torstig on neglecting his wife until the Skald had been red in the face.

He didn't register that the old man was a Skald until the group was gathering around Elise.  Mira registered the threat though and was between the men and the babies before anyone else registered there might be an issue.

Of course then one of them had backhanded Mira and called him a thrall and Sami had been kissing dirt as his brothers flattened him to the ground. He'd been seething at the insult when Mira straightened and stared the man who'd insulted him down.

He didn't know what passed between them but the other man went pale and for the rest of the rather odd visit had given his lover a very wide and wary berth.  A few weeks later and a chest filled with green amber and white gold appeared from the Old Skalds Holding.  Sami had nodded quietly, and sent a heavy ring back of red gold set with topaz as a sign the apology was accepted.

That incident did finally convince Mira to actually wear some of the clothing Yu had stolen from Howard's castle when they'd gone to retrieve him.  If nothing else it kept another set of visitors from making the mistake of striking him.

The fool man had still made a crack about how this Holding must be beyond wealthy if even their thralls wore colors.

This time Sami hadn't been squashed flat to the ground when he lunged for the man.  But this time it was Mira's hand on his chest stopped him from demanding an apology with his fists.

The rest of the man's party looked confused at the round of groans that came from around them.  The fool himself though just took a breath to continue when Lauri's dry tones stopped him dead.

“I'd not ridicule a man when his hair was cropped saving one of his brothers from peril in battle.  For one my wife might be most displeased, she was very happy I came back to her intact.”

There was a long pause as the fool took in the raven feathers in Lauri's hair and the ravens perched nearby.

He gulped then spoke again.

“So why no fine ornaments, so signs of his prowess?”

Mira snorted.

“One, I'm not a great warrior or renowned Skald.  Two, I'm not an idiot.”

Sami groaned; he knew where this was going.

“Mira,” he pleaded.

“Hush.”  Mira leveled his glare back on the poor confused fool.  “I am aiding my husband's mother today in making soap, not a job that is clean, and one where pretty ornaments get in the way and can spoil a batch or be spoiled themselves.  When that task is done there are fleeces to scour, meals to prepare and babies to feed.  If you wish to try doing those tasks loaded with fripperies I invite you to try.”

There was a blink. Then two of his companions began to chuckle.

One nudged the fool and muttered something in his ear.  There was a sigh and the fool deflated like a pig bladder balloon that had a pin stuck in it.  The look Sami got then was wry and all he could do was shrug helplessly.

What could a man do?

~0~

Midwinter came and things got strange.

Last year the kindling ceremony had been fairly ordinary, nothing strange had come of putting out all the fires and the woman who guarded the last embers had done her duty and rekindled the log in the center of the Holding without incident.

This year things went a little odd.

For one thing the bones that designated who would who would stand for each of the gods didn't pick single people this year.

Torstig was the Trickster, but **_that_** was hardly a surprise.  Many a time Torstig's mother had threatened to find a traveling group of vagabonds and sell him to them, but she'd never followed through no matter how many pranks her son played.  Sami had boggled when the rune for Othar came up in his hand; he wasn't the great leader Othar was.

Hurr was Atti, which shocked people; Atti was as far from a smith as could be imagined.  But when Alwe's rune came to Tash's hand people settled.  Alwe was the Midwife and Hurr's wife.  But when the last rune left in the bag of blank stones was Iriet there was some worry.

All of the women had drawn, even the thrall girls had drawn.  Every female who bled at the cycles of the moon had drawn, there weren't any left.

Uther sighed and looked at his wife.  Ylsa nodded and began offering the bag to the men as well. Julian and Yu had looked at each other, then Julian drew a lot.  Then Jonne, Jussi and Jyrki.

Mira had shaken his hair away from his face and made sure the string of amber beads in little Mikko's mouth wouldn't drop to the ground and freed a hand to draw.

Sami fainted when Iriet's mark was turned face up.

~0~

The fires were put out, then the lamps and torches.  One by one they were put out leaving only the bowl of embers at Mira's feet.  Amie shivered and huddled closer into Lauri's side.  It was so dark with all the fires out.  And it was overcast so there weren't even stars to act as comfort.

The story began.  Lauri had handed his kantele over to Ylsa for tonight.

The Great God slept on the sea and a bird laid her eggs on His knee.  An eel nibbled the fingers of His trailing hand and He twitched in His sleep, the eggs fell and broke creating the earth.  The drops of water flung from His hand became the sky and stars.

The Great God slept.

Again the bird laid her eggs on His knee, this time the Great God rolled over in His sleep and the eel carried the eggs to shore in remorse for the first set breaking.

Those eggs hatched out the gods.  Othar, Hurr the Smith, the Trickster Loqui, Freyr the Skald, and the quiet hunter Vetti

Sami's voice changed, he rose and shifted and as he did his hair changed from honey gold to the gold of the metal and his eyes shifted to a darker blue.  One of the great ravens hopped up on his fist and shuffled up to perch on his shoulder and eyed the crowd with one great yellow eye and then the other.

Atti's slow smile came out as he rose his dark hair shifting of itself to lengthen and tie itself into a neat plait down his broad back.

Torstig grinned and bounded over to tackle his brother and Cherie gasped when he turned to look at her.  One of his eyes was blue, the other green, not the blue green that they normally were, and his smile was manic even for him.

Then the chant shifted to the births of the goddesses out of the Great God's tears falling on the eyes of the eel He'd crushed under His heel.  Iriet and her sister Alwe the Healer.

Tash gave Atti a swift kick and scolded him soundly, but her voice was higher and her brown hair had taken a decidedly red cast.  And Atti growled 'wife' in a voice that was deeper and more gravely that the healer's own.

It went on until Amie and Cherie were half afraid to look at Mira, but other than shaking his head nothing seems to change as the story moved on to the births of men.

The tale moved on to the Trickster stealing fire from the sun to help men stay warm through the Long Dark.  And it told of Iriet acting to stay the hand of her husband when he went to take it back.

Mira rose, and Amie let out a little cry as the cloak fell away from his shoulders.

Mira's hair had been just past his shoulders, just long enough to tie back and have a hope of it _staying_ back.

His hair now fell to his knees.

When he moved to pour the coals over the prepared log Sami moved to stop him.  Mira reached out and caught him firmly by the ear and whatever she said had him meekly stepping back.  Nothing at all like last year where the man playing Othar had playfully bargained with the girl acting as Iriet.

The coals poured out and the log went up like it had been soaked in tar.

Torstig whooped and dove through the flames, something that had Cherie breathless in fright until he came tumbling out the other side laughing and ran to her side to cuddle in with the same childish enthusiasm he had when he'd first snatched her.

Lauri continued the song and everyone joined the chorus as they moved forward to light torches to spread the light and carry it back to the longhouses.

Amie and Cherie wondered what exactly had just happened as the song ended and they lined with the rest of the women who had children over the last year to have Mira and Sami bless them.

Sami adored Elise, so to see him humph and grumble until Mira swatted him was _very_ strange.  But they stayed silent.

When morning came they could ask their questions.

~0~

Sami stared in wonder at the fall of silver silk spread over his chest.

What magic was this?

Hesitantly he stroked a hand over the hair.

He wasn't drunk or dreaming.  Mira had long hair again.  He didn't remember anything past the beginning of the Creation tale last night.  He ached a little and it made him smile.  Sami knew that ache; it was the ache he got after he had a long night of wild loving with his Mira. He moved a little and hissed at the sting of scratches down his back.

Mira clung to him, pulled him tight to him, but had never left scratches down his back before.

Mira let out a little moan and Sami smiled and helped his husband gather up all his unbound hair so he could gingerly get out of bed.  The little moan Mira let out had his cock twitching weakly.

“What did we do last night?  I'm not sure I can close my legs.”

“I don't remember anything past the creation of the world last night.”  Sami hissed again as he sat the rest of the way up and pulled more on the marks down his back.

“Sami,” Mira's gasp had him freezing in place, but the feel of gentle fingertips on his back told him that Mira had seen the marks.

“Um.”  He had no explanation.

“We need to have Atti or Tash dose those, some of them look deep.”  Mira hissed again as he tried to stand.

Lauri coughed softly and offered Sami the jade comb he used on Mira's hair.

“I think after last night, you'll want to just stay in bed.”

Sami latched onto Lauri's words.

“You remember what we did last night?”

Lauri fidgeted and nodded then with a sigh gave in and told them as Sami began combing out Mira's long hair.

“The gods came to visit.  And now I think I believe the tales of Othar loving his way through a Holding and of how only Iriet has the stamina to wear him out.”

Sami blinked, and felt rather stupid.

“What?”

Sami was in full agreement with Mira's confused question.

Lauri coughed again.

“You, ah... were a lot louder than normal.  And well, Amie is planning on doing some of the things Mira did to you to me, just not all of them at once.”  The smile on Larui's face said he was looking forward to that.  “And Cherie had to tie Torstig to the bed to get him to stay still long enough to settle and actually sleep. I'm not sure how well Tash and Atti will be moving around, they were,” Lauri fidgeted a little with the hem of his tunic.  “Rather active.”

Sami realized what had happened and flopped back into his bed with a moan and a yelp for his wounds.

Further up the longhouse he could hear Torstig's plaintive voice asking.

“Othar's beard, what did I _drink_ last night?”

~0~

Atti had been dragging as well; in fact everyone who had drawn a god rune was dragging a bit.

And Sami noted Mira wasn't the only one who had longer hair than they'd started with.

Atti was grumbling as his mother worked a comb through the tangles in his hair.  Sami blinked a bit but then realized that Tash was sitting at his feet and dozing with her head on his knee.

Sami winced as his scratches stung again, and yelped when Mira tugged his tunic up and over his head.

“Mira,” he yelped. “It's **_cold_** out.”

“Winter tends to be cold, now hold still we need to clean these.”

Atti lifted his head and looked over in confusion then groaned when he saw the marks down Sami's back.  Tash jumped and woke, then looked around to see what had provoked Atti's groan.  When she saw she hissed and levered herself gingerly to her feet.

Sami yelped when Tash sluiced cold water over his back.  She hadn't even warned him it was coming.

“Do you remember what you were doing when you got these?”

“We're pretty sure I gave them to him, but I don't remember doing it.”

Sami yelped again when Tash poked him.

“I don't remember.”

Tash made a soft humph noise.

“I'd think a man would want to remember what he did to make his spouse leave marks like these on him.”

Sami felt his ears burn red.

“Wife, if I could remember what I did last night to get the marks I did, be sure I'd be using it again.”

There was a smattering of wry chuckles as Tash turned to glare back at Atti.

“I'm sure, Husband.  But when you did, be sure _I_ would _not_ be dosing your wounds.”

Sami shared a look with Mira.  The last they knew Atti's neck was still unadorned, but today he wore the torc with the tightly coiled ferns and tiny lizards decorating the ends.

He yelped again at the feel of gentle hands washing a warm liquid over his back, then panted in relief as the stinging eased.  Atti grimaced in understanding as his mother braided his hair up tightly and bound it at the base with his usual gold ring and at the tip with a bit of leather.

“Stings like blazes doesn't it?”

Sami nodded and grimaced at the implication that Atti wore similar marks under his tunics.

“I just wish I could remember what I did to earn them.”  Sami smiled faintly as Mira brought them both a bit of breakfast.  He took his portion and dropped a kiss on the inside of Mira's wrist in thanks.

Atti grunted and winced as he rose to limp over to where his wife was dressing Sami's scratches.  Sami gave him a wide-eyed look.  Atti _never_ limped unless it was after a particularly ugly battle.

Atti grimaced and shrugged as he stroked light fingers over Tash's hair.

Sami blinked.  Last night Tash's hair hadn't been much longer than Mira's, now it was in a braid over her shoulder bound off with a gold ring and bit of leather just like Atti's.  The brown was now more a red brown and the gold ring highlighted the threads of copper and gold in her hair.  He pulled a bit of his own hair forward and was relieved to see it was still honey colored.

Something told him Tahvo would be getting a request for hair rings _very_ shortly.

“When you are finished, Wife.”

Tash grimaced and scowled up at him.

“Don't make me kick you, Husband.”

“Yes, Wife.”

Sami blinked and kept his mouth filled with excellent sausage and sweet pancake as he watched Tash and Atti heading back into their longhouse.

There was a smattering of chuckles and Sami had to stifle a snicker when he heard the bets starting over whether or not Tash would end up pregnant because of this.

~0~

When Tash did indeed prove to be pregnant later that spring there were several men who were richer and poorer as a result.

When Ylsa confirmed it Atti had to sit down very abruptly, and that had left Sami and Torstig the richer for betting that Atti _wouldn't_ faint at hearing the news.

He did prove to be an overprotective menace, and more than once Tash was driven out of all patience with him when he tried to keep her from overworking.  His words, not Freyja or Ylsa's.  As things warmed up and her belly grew bigger and her temper grew shorter the entire Holding gained considerable amusement by watching Atti try to get his wife to settle and rest and her habit of kicking him, yanking his hair to haul him down to her level so she could shout in his face or tripping him and walking away.

It made Sami very fleetingly grateful Mira couldn't get pregnant, but that feeling was quickly followed by a faint wistfulness as he watched his husband help his sisters tend their little ones.

~0~

Early summer was the time when pairs began sneaking off to spend a little private time together.  Sami had a place up in the hills he liked, not far from the place Nikki had built when he was getting ready to steal Freyja.

Sami had taken a couple quick trips up to the tiny cabin he'd built not far from the one his father had built.

His had never been used to 'hide' his stolen spouse, but it took very little work to get it back into sound condition and fill be bed box with sweet grasses and lay some bedding over it.  Sami snuck some food stocks up as well.  He intended to have a few days alone with his love.

When all was ready he went home and convinced his Mira to come away with him.

~0~

Sami hummed in contentment.  He could smell tea and oat porridge and hear birds calling over his head.

That meant Mira was up.

He let out a low grumble and rolled over.  It would have been nice to have his love lolling in bed with him.  He smiled a little as he looked out the cabin's open door to see Mira tending the small pot he'd brought up.

Mira was just a thin linen tunic, one that was almost too short for him.  When he bent it rode up exposing creamy pale skin on the backs of Mira's thighs.  Sami let out a low growl and rose from the bed to stalk his lover.

“If you're that hungry you can just get up and,” Mira's next words were lost in a squeak as Sami caught him around the waist and bore him to the ground, his hands worming up under the thin tunic to stroke over soft skin.

Sami hummed happily and stroked over Mira's belly, smiling when the sensitive skin twitched away from his hand and had Mira's ass bumping into his groin.  Mira had just levered up to his hands and knees when Sami felt a sharp blow and the world went spinning into blackness.  Only distantly did he hear Mira scream him name, and he wasn't able to do anything about it.

~0~

Hearing Mira screaming his name was the first thing he was aware of other than a blinding headache when he came around.

The next thing he was aware of was a warm, slick, wetness around his cock, and he couldn't figure out why Mira's voice was so desperately unhappy if he was riding down on him.  But the tightness was wrong, so Sami tried to open his eyes.

He tried to recoil from the woman riding him and couldn't.  He tried reaching up to push her away and realized he was bound down securely enough he wasn't getting away until someone _let_ him go.  Sami thrashed as much as his bindings allowed, which wasn't much, and let out a strangled scream of negation as he came.

The woman didn't even blink as she climbed off him and another woman, far older that the first, stepped up.

Sami let out a whimper as she briskly wiped him down and tried fondling him into firmness again.  When his body failed to respond she shrugged and muttered something about four in a day not being too bad.

He wasn't sure he wanted to understand her meaning.  He tried to struggle as four women unbound him from the strange table and dragged him over to a rough cell and tossed him in.

Torstig's young son would have put up a better fight and _he_ wasn't even a year old.  Sami's legs wouldn't carry his own weight and his arms wouldn't obey his will.

He fell in an untidy heap in a deep bed of straw and had to lay there for several long moments before he could weakly crawl toward Mira's voice.

A touch of steel across his throat had him freezing in place.  The threat wasn't to him, it was to Mira.  And it was all the more frightening because the women didn't speak any words of threat, just made it clear that if Mira didn't do what they wanted Sami would pay.

Mira sobbed once and let the women drag him out, strip him down to his skin and feed him a bowl full of something. Then he was tied down to the strange T shaped table.  The older woman stepped up and fondled Mira into hardness and another, much younger woman stepped up and straddled his Mira, rode down on him until he came with a little sob and then got off him and walked away like it was nothing.

Sami weakly crawled to the grate and reached a hand out to Mira, called to him, and for his pains was menaced with a spear point until he was back in the far corner of his little cell.

When a second woman stepped up, and then a third Sami knew what Mira had been given.

The potion was called White Myrtle, and was a mix of several things. For a woman to use it on a man who wasn't her willing husband was a stoning offense. If she was pregnant from the use of it the sentence would be carried out after she was delivered of the child and a suitable wet nurse was found.

That they were doing this to a god Called pair would have them taken to a Sowain festival and burned alive.

All Sami could do was watch as they violated his love and when they were finished dragged him to the cell beside his and threw him inside to recover.

Sami found a gap in the wall wide enough to get a few fingers through.  He sobbed in relief when he felt Mira's hand wrap around them.

“Who are these women?”

“I don't know.”

There was a crack as one of the women slammed her spear butt into the cages and hissed at them.  The implication was to be silent.

Sami felt Mira squeeze his fingers and heard the barest breath of a whisper.

“I love you.”

~0~

They'd been fed a simple porridge and given buckets of water to drink from as well as empty buckets for waste.  Sami worked through the night at getting the gap between their cells, more horse stall than proper cell, widened enough that he could get his hand through.  He'd just gotten it where Mira could slip his slimmer hand into his cell when the door to his cell was yanked open and he was dragged out a spear point.  Dawn was just breaking.

A bowl of White Myrtle was held to his lips and Sami was given the choice, drink or drown.

He drank.

The potion hit him hard, and given how little they'd been given to eat he wasn't surprised. So he was groggy and uncoordinated when they tied him to the T table again.  He shook his head 'no' over and over as the first girl mounted him.  Before he'd been Called he'd have been happy enough to have her, she was a pretty blond with generous curves.  But that was then; he didn't want her now for all his prick was stiff inside her.

Sami sobbed in relief when he came, but then the old woman was back, wiping him down and fondling him hard again.  A second girl mounted him, and he blinked in confusion.  She was the girl from yesterday, still as blank faced as before.

His body seized and he came again with a low unhappy cry.

He was given water, but he could taste the potion lacing it and whimpered.

Why were they doing this?

~0~

Lauri frowned intently as he stared up at his birds circling overhead.

Iason was beside himself with worry. After six days Sami and Mira hadn't come back and they'd only planned to be gone three.  They'd come up to Sami's hiding place and found it in disarray.

From the looks of things the cook pot had been left on the fire until the fire had burned itself out and the lamp inside had run dry of fuel and guttered out.  Beside the cook fire there were signs of a struggle, and one bit of wood lying nearby had a bit of blood on it.

Torstig had run back down to get Atti, and several other members of the war band.  If someone had taken one of their brothers here in a relatively safe area they could have a very big problem on their hands.

Lauri's birds had a direction, they just needed men, and arms before they followed.

~0~

Iason fretted until he saw Yu trotting up with a pack on his back.  A few hundred lengths behind him he could see Torstig's bright hair and Atti's dark trotting side by side.

Yu dropped the pack without his usual smile and pulled Iason's hauberk from it and helped the bigger man into it as the rest of the band came up and organized.

“Where?”  Atti was being terse, never a good sign, but Iason wasn't sure he'd have had the patience for conversation right now.

Lauri pointed uphill.

“Up and back.  To the grove used for ceremonies to Iriet six midsummers ago.”

Iason gulped.  That place had been abandoned after a sudden flash flood had killed over a dozen young women awaiting their initiation.  To use so ill omened a place, Iason gave himself a shake.  He didn't want to think about it.  To think about it might make it real.

He didn't want his dark thought to be real.

“How many?” Yu's voice was soft, but his level tone gave Iason chills.

Lauri closed his eyes and communed with his birds.

“I can't tell.  At least a dozen women, probably more.”

Iason winced.

To be taken by women was humiliating, but all the signs said Sami had been taken utterly by surprise.  And all of them were well aware that alone they would go down if an enemy had enough warm bodies to throw at them.

He wanted to run after his brother, but knew if he ran off on his own he'd just make things worse.

Plans were made, and he forced himself to listen.

Then they quietly moved off at the ground eating wolf trot.

~0~

Yu watched from his place on the ridge.  Lauri's ravens had had stone thrown and slung at them when they'd flown over so now they were keeping a careful eye out for missiles and weren't as able to scan the area for other threats.  He'd stepped forward; this was his area, the sneaking into a place and getting information.

He'd counted nineteen young women and five older ones.  One of the older ones was _very_ old and seemed to be the one in charge.

Yu had also found Sami and Mira and almost given away his hiding place he'd recoiled in revulsion so hard.  He knew it was possible for a woman to rape a man, but he'd never _seen_ it done.

He never wanted to see it done _ever again_.

He kept watch all day as the women fed Sami some drug until his cock would no longer would rise to the demands.  Then they dragged him to what looked to be a re-purposed stable and threw him into a stall and slammed the door closed latching it where he couldn't get himself out.  Not that he was at all steady enough to do anything if he did get himself out.

Mira was dragged out of the stall beside Sami's and fed some of the same potion, tied to the strange T shaped table that held his arms out from his shoulders and kept his legs mostly together.  Then the old woman fondled him hard and a younger one mounted him and rode him until he came.

He'd seen enough.

Yu eeled back out of his hiding place and found his brothers and told them what he’d found.

If he cuddled Julian a little tighter, well, no one commented.

~0~

Atti gritted his teeth and stared down at the women as they dragged Sami out of his cell.  They'd tried going in last night and learned that none of them, not even Yu could get back through the perimeter.  Lauri had sworn savagely and Jyrki, who was their second fastest runner after Yu, had peeled off his armor and taken off for the Holding as fast as he could go.

Yu had worked his way around to the other side of the ceremonial area and was watching, Ewie was with him and the ravens were swapping off you was high overhead and who was with Yu as he found things worth sending back to them.

From how Sami was reacting they were starting off the day with a full strength brewing of White Myrtle.  And continuing with lighter concentrations until Sami couldn't get it up anymore.  Then they would start on Mira.  And Mira didn't fight anymore, according to Yu he'd seen Sami threatened at spear point if Mira didn't obey.

If anyone had a spear point at his Tash's throat, well, he'd be obedient until he could safely wring the threateners neck.  From the look he could see in Mira's eyes there would be pure hell to pay the instant he was free and Sami safe.

Of course Sami was the same, so it was going to be pure hell to get one out before the other.

A low angry hiss from behind him had Atti jumping and turning.

His eyes widened and he gulped.

He knew Sami's mother had been one of the best archers in the Holding in her youth.  But seeing her holding her bow with that look in her eyes made him suddenly very glad he wasn't the one hurting her son's husband.

He gulped again as he watched the Holding's women spread out and nocked their first arrows.

Freyja drew down just as the old woman started to move toward Mira again.

Atti gulped again. 

That first arrow had gone through the old woman's skull, and **not** by going through an eye first.

The old woman just dropped in the dirt and the others stared at her fallen body in shock.

Then the women were moving and Atti tried to follow, only to be brought up short at the edge of the clearing.  All of the men were stuck, only able to helplessly watch as their own women took control of things with a brutal efficiency that made him more than a bit queasy. 

Suddenly he was glad the women didn't go raiding with them.  It might start something, and he wasn't sure if he wanted to deal with the aftermath.

Julian let out a yelp, and tumbled into the clearing.

A breath later and Atti was able to stumble forward and move to where Freyja was freeing Mira's arms from that horrible offering table.

He wasn't at all surprised when the first thing Mira asked for was Sami.  Jyrki and Jussi carefully helped Sami over to Mira's side and the two clung to each other tightly.  A hand to each one and he felt queasy from the sickness induced by the potions they'd been fed.

Freyja leveled a look at him.

“Can you purge the poisons here?”

Atti went to his knees and laid both hands on the earth, reaching in that peculiar way only true earth healers could do.

The earth was willing, even eager, to help him.  Atti barely lifted his head when the earth powers began rushing into him; he hadn't even begun his chants.  He hadn't even need able to ground himself when the power rushed through him and left his eyes dazzled with brightly colored sparkles.

When Atti was next aware Tash had his head in her lap and was stroking his hair.  He blinked in confusion, but when he stirred she held him firmly in place.

“Be still Husband, unless you wish to embarrass yourself further.”

All he could do was blink up at her in confusion.  A more careful look around showed that all of them were back in the Holding, in the area around the main cooking fires and between the longhouses.

He didn't remember coming back.

Last he'd known it had been mid-morning, now the sun was touching the horizon and painting the sky in red and purple.

“What happened?”

“You did a Calling without grounding yourself first.”

Atti closed his eyes and sighed.

“My head told me that, Wife.  But when I check to see if I can even do a calling I don't normally have the Earth rise up and smite me.”

Tash giggled at him.  If he'd had the energy he'd had pounced her flat and given her a reason to make silly noises at him.  At least her hands were gentle as they stroked some of the ache away.

“From what Iason could tell me when you reached to test if the ground was suitable you were flooded.  You should have known better than to poke in old ritual space without grounding first.”

Atti winced again, she was right, he should have thought of that.  Ritual spaces tended to accumulate energies, no matter how long they lay dormant and unused.

“Point.  But why so much energy?”

Tash chewed her lip in thought, and Atti had to sit on the desire to pull her face down to kiss that pensive look away.  As a woman she was inherently closer to the earth and its powers and much as it pained his professional pride, she _was_ the more gifted Healer.

“I think what they were doing offended one of your gods.  And when you asked 'can I fix this here' the answer was a 'yes,' but the power just flooded out rather than waiting to be pulled.”  Her hands rubbed soothing circles at Atti's temples as she continued.  “Sami and Mira are as well as can be expected, we put them to bed together after we got home.  We'll be watching Sami a bit carefully; he took a solid hit to the head but seems to be doing alright.” 

Atti could hear the smile in her voice, and had to smile back.

“Something to be said for being a hard headed Northman.”

“What of our little one?  He took no troubles from the excitement?”

Tash snorted and one hand left his face to stroke over the swell of her belly.

“No Husband, he's well settled.”

Atti shifted, rolling over to rub his cheek against the bump that hid their son, then moving up to kiss his wife.  He might not be able to have her easily now, but there were things he could do to make his Tash gasp in pleasure.  He grinned when she swatted him and scolded about wanting bed play after being carried back to her on a board.

Torstig cheerfully called out that Atti would drag himself back from Hella's gate if he could have her and that provoked a whole series of cheerful catcalls.

~0~

Sami could hear the playful innuendo outside the longhouse, and shuddered in relief.  They were home, they were safe.  His head hurt and it would take time to fix the damages done by the White Myrtle and the minimal food, but they were safe.  He had Mira curled close in his arms, cuddled tight and holding him like Mira feared he'd be stolen away in the night.

It would be a long time before he'd be able to sleep alone without worrying about Mira, and he expected for at least the next week any time he woke and Mira wasn't there he'd have a bit of a spell until he knew Mira was safe.

His mother had a suspicion as to why they'd been taken, but so far she hadn't shared it with him.

Sami had a few suspicions of his own.  A few of Iriet's more fanatical followers had demanded at the last gathering that Mira be made to breed to as many women as wished a child of him.  They claimed the bloodline of Iriet's chosen shouldn't be lost to a mere male spouse.

The council had refused, citing the sacredness of the Called Bond.  Sami had felt his ears burn when they'd called to witness his brothers and heard what kind of an idiot he'd been trying to get his Mira in his arms that first time.

He didn't remember roses, or going charging through them and their sharp thorns to get to Mira.  He supposed it was a good thing he'd had armor, or Atti might have had more than the bruises Mira had served him with to treat afterwards.  He also didn't remember any stone walls or a run off stream from the well's basin.

He remembered having wet feet, but had thought that had been from Mira trying to brain him with a bucket and half soaking him.

Sami leaned down a pressed a kiss to that soft hair, now neatly braided up again, and settled down closer to his love.

He didn't know if he could sleep, but he'd at least try.

His brothers were all around them.

They were safe.

~0~

“**_How_** many are pregnant?”

Mira blinked at how shocked Sami sounded and had to give himself a bit of a shake himself as Ylsa tersely repeated herself.

“Six for certain.”  She'd been checking over the captive women as they waited for the Holding Chiefs and Elders to gather for their trial.  “After the one gave herself to the sea we've been being a lot more cautious.  Tash is fairly sure she was pregnant also.”

Sami reeled and abruptly sat down to look up at his mother in dazed shock.

“Six?” His voice was small and his face stunned.  But he was only just starting to get back to himself after their ordeal.  Even now he would get jittery if Mira wasn't in his line of sight.

Mira wasn't comfortable unless Sami was nearby either, so he'd taken to doing his tasks in the same general area Sami was.  Not that any of the little ones minded where they were fed and Sami seemed more than happy to play with and cuddle the littler ones.

Mira moved to kneel by Sami when he reached blindly for him and let his husband cuddle him close.

Six.

They'd both faintly wished for little ones of their own, but neither felt at all comfortable with even trying to begat a child now.  Supposedly Sami had a daughter somewhere up in the lands where the ice never full melted, and if Ylsa and Freyja were correct she'd be nine or ten by now.  Sami had gotten her on a local woman when they'd gone up to the far north to hunt and trade with the tribes there.

They might have six children.

And Mira was just as jittery; at night they clung together and rocked in each other’s arms.




But they might have children.

They just held each other tight and tried to cope.

~0~

Horvald grumbled into his beard and listened gravely to the tale Sami, son of Nikki told.  He and the council had already heard Mira's version of the tale, and he had to admit they meshed very well.  Mira remembering things Sami could not due to the blow he'd taken to the head.  The tales his Shield brother and war kin told were disturbing enough.  And that was without him recognizing several of the women they'd taken in the raid to get Sami and Mira back.

Atti was a well-known healer and he'd preserved the bowl they'd found that Sami and Mira both said had held the potions they were dosed with.  The old Skald Hwurlig and the Healer Aipo both had sniffed and grimaced, recognizing the smell right off.

White Myrtle.  And a concentrated form of it.

Nasty stuff that was.

A little, well thinned, given to a man by his wife after they'd talked things over was one thing, this.  This was entirely another.  The women had been told 'no' and had refused to accept a god given Calling between the two men.

Freyja had stepped out of speaking as Midwife, claiming bias as her son was one of the victims.  And all the men on council had nodded and murmured to themselves about her honesty.  It took great courage to admit one couldn't speak fairly when family was involved, and many of them weren't sure in Nikki's place they or their wives could have done the same.

The verdict really was a foregone conclusion; there were too many witnesses, and even the women themselves told tales that agreed with the main line of the ones Sami, Mira and their war brothers told.

But of twenty women captured only thirteen had lived to speak, the others had either killed themselves or bled to death by miscarriage. 

Healer Atti's heavily pregnant battle bride spoke as midwife.  And her opinion was that they might well lose two more of the pregnant women due to them refusing to eat properly or otherwise care for themselves.

Horvald had to smile a little at how Atti hovered over his wife; he remembered the fool he'd acted for his wife's first pregnancy, and her second, and her third.  So he could sympathize with the poor man.  Some of the younger men on council had chuckled about Atti being hen pecked, but one of the older ones had snorted and reminded them Atti had a very fine hen to peck him.  And as feisty as she was they clearly were developing a level of devotion to each other than only powerfully Called couples felt.

He nodded to the heavily pregnant woman and she sniffed at him and waddled out, serving her husband a swift kick to the ankle when he softly begged her to go rest.  The silent plea the man put up to the gods made several of them chuckle briefly before they sobered again.

All this trouble because of a _man_ who was chosen by Iriet.

The man wasn't at all womanly either, in spite of his fair face.  Well he did spin, but a good many men could spin wool and flax.  Naalbinding wasn’t a skill that wasn't tied to the hearth, nor was child tending.

But he was Iriet's chosen for some strange reason.

According to Hwurlig the boy had been promised to one of Iriet's servants as payment of a debt before he'd even been born.  That provoked a few winces, and the tale as Hwurlig recounted it had them all wincing again and shaking their heads.  No wonder the man had avoided portions of the gatherings they held at midsummer.  Tales like his tended to get sung often, folk liked hearing tales of betrayal and redemption and of evildoers getting their proper rewards.

It had to get terribly old though, to hear those songs and tales and know it was your own blood as was featured in them.

He sighed.

There really wasn't any other option.

~0~

Since the women seemed to have a preference, if the way their suicides went out was anything to go by, for drowning the women who were not pregnant were sentenced to death by water.  The ten who were not carrying children were dealt with by having them carried out on an old fishing vessel, which was to beaten up and too small to be considered worth the effort of repairing, and set adrift.  The women had their hands bound and the wives of the Holding set fire arrows to the tar soaked hull.

That gave the women a choice, death by fire or death by water.  And that was more choice than most criminals got.

Most chose to go over the side.

The Skalds sang their souls to rest to keep them from coming back to haunt anyone.

Mira just huddled into Sami's side and refused to watch as the battered old boat burned to the waterline and sank.

That left three to be watched closely until they delivered.

~0~

Atti yelped and dropped to his knees in the dirt and clutched his genitals.  He looked up with watering eyes at his wife and tried to figure out what he'd done that would warrant her deciding to try and main him again.  He'd thought they were past this.

Then he saw Ylsa and Freyja preparing for a birth and his eyes went round.

They couldn't be.

But no one else was remotely close to being due.

Atti floundered to his feet at Freyja firmly guided Tash back into the long house.

Tash couldn't be delivering, she'd only conceived at Midwinter.  Midsummer was barely a moon past, it was too early. His breath sobbed in his chest and he stumbled toward the longhouse only to be held back by Jyrki and Tahvo.

It was too early.

~0~

Tash snarled in irritation.

They'd set up the birthing bed where she could see out into the space between the longhouses.  The breeze she got as a result was nice, but it also meant she could see that infernal man who'd gotten her into this mess.

She huffed and waited, then pushed hard.  It felt like she was passing a large melon and it hurt accordingly.  Her mental calculations had this child coming early.  Very early.  But from the sounds Ylsa made the child wasn't ill formed.

Tash pushed and screamed.

When she looked up again she had to laugh, at least until another contraction took her.  Four of the Holding's larger men had Atti squashed flat to the dirt in the courtyard and he was still trying to get up and get to her.

She screamed again and felt something give, the next time she pushed Freyja was taking the child from Ylsa and she only had a few more of the body wracking contractions to suffer through and it was over.  Her baby let out one loud yowl of protest and then quieted.

Freyja laid the baby over her chest and Tash blinked at the squashed little face with such a look of grumpy distaste on it.

“You have a son.”

Tash smiled.  Atti was going to be insufferable.

No, he already was insufferable, even with his face and clothing smudged with dirt and his braid rumpled.  He had gotten free and was by her side, looking down at their son with wide worried and awed eyes.

“He's, he's so tiny.”

Ylsa let out a snort.

“You were that small once.  And for all he's early you wouldn't know it.”

Atti gulped and shook his head in shock; his hands were trembling as the hovered over Tash and the baby.  Clearly he wanted to touch, to reassure himself that they were real, but afraid to do damage by being clumsy.

Ylsa let out another rude noise and directed the girls in putting the longhouse back in order.

“Likely Tash was in labor last night, her delivery was very fast.  Your little one wanted to be here very much to be in such a hurry.”

Atti carefully wrapped an arm around Tash's shoulders and hugged her as he kissed her face and hair.

“He's, he's just so tiny.”

“Otto will get bigger.”

“Otto?”

Tash looked down at the tiny baby in her arms and smiled as he began rooting for her breast.

“Otto, for my father.”

“Otto,” Atti repeated softly, his hand hovering just over Otto's little head of wispy dark hair.

~0~

If watching Atti trying to get Tash to rest while she was pregnant had amused the Holding watching him try to get her to slow down once little Otto had entered the world was hysterical.

For one Atti got very good and getting out of the way of Tash's kicks to his groin, but not so good at avoiding her quick strong hands.  And since Midwinter he'd had a longer tail of hair for her to grab when she wished to drag him down to her level to be sure he could hear her.

He'd begged his mother to cut it back to what it had been, but she'd just _looked_ at him and scolded him. The gods had grown his hair, the least he could do was leave it be.

At first he'd had to get his mother to braid it, but after a few weeks Tash had taken up that task and now it was a comforting morning ritual.  He'd comb out and braid her hair, then she would comb out and braid his.  He'd started sneaking amber ornaments into her braid and as far as he knew Tash never noticed.

Sami shook his head in quiet amusement as he watched Atti pleading with his wife to rest as she changed the swaddling on their son.  Little Otto never peed on his Aiti but would gleefully pee on his Isa when Atti took over that task.  All Tash did was finish wrapping Otto and hand him over to his father.

“Fine then, you mind the little one for an hour.”

Atti cradled the baby carefully in his arms as he protested.  Not the watching of the baby, he'd done that for infants that were no kin of his, but for his worry that Tash was overworking.

“He'll get Tash to slow down better if he just curls up with the baby where she can see and sleeps.  She rests better if he isn't fussing.”

Sami snorted and turned to where Mira was feeding little Katja.  She was barely three and was terribly fussy about her porridge.  Summer had left them a huge bounty of berries of several sorts and there were drying racks set up to preserve what didn't get gleefully eaten.  And a lot was being gleefully eaten, berries were in the porridge, served with sausages and pancakes and eater sun warmed of the brambles and vines.

It made feeding the children easier.  The smallest one couldn't have honey for a sweetener, and a few disliked the taste of the hard brown sugar.  Sami expected they'd grow out of that quickly enough, but it meant having sweet berries made feeding their fussy ones easier.

Once the last of the little one were fed and their faces at least wiped off Mira turned to the basket of wool at his feet.

This spring had brought a bounty of wool, and every hand that could wield a spindle with any skill was working to turn that wool into fine thread.  Every woman was spinning, almost all the girls over the age of six were spinning and a goodly number of the men were spinning, even if what they were doing usually was simpler than what the women were doing.

Sami leaned back against the longhouse and watched as Mira worked taking carded wool and spinning it into fine thread with a deft snap of his fingers to set the spindle whirling.

He'd have to see if he could find some nicer whorls, the plain ones of fired clay worked, but he'd seen nicer ones of stone and even glass.

Or something to ask Linke about.

Sami smiled; Linke had found him a lovely chest of the toys that supposedly were in common use in the lands of Chin.  His face dropped a little, they hadn't even had the chance to play with those much.

A warm hand cupping his cheek brought him out of his thoughts.

“Sami?”

Mira, leaning in close and stroking his face.  Sami caught Mira's hand and dropped a kiss in the palm before he smiled at his lover.

He had a sudden urge, one he hadn't felt since they'd been captured.  Sami moved and swept Mira up and carried him off, leaving his spindle and wool basket where they fell.

“Sami!” yelped Mira as Sami carried him into the longhouse and laid him on their bed.

“I need to feel you.”

He knew he was being rough, but he needed Mira so much.  After a moment Mira was helping him strip of his tunics and groping for the little oil pot they kept by the bed.  Sami slicked his fingers and pushed one in as he mouthed over Mira's chest.  The cry he got made his blood hum.  He pushed in another and had Mira squirming and thrashing under him.

Then he stopped and pulled Mira on top of him.

“Ride me; I need to see you over me.”

Mira nodded and carefully moved over him, unbinding his hair as he went.

Sami whimpered, something about seeing all that silver silk flowing free made it easier, and made him crazier.  He could tangle his hands in it and tug, and make Mira gasp his name.

Mira slid down onto him with a gasp and Sami arched up hard, reaching for Mira's hips as he did.

Having Mira's hair flowing down helped; all the girls who'd taken them had done so with their hair in tight braids over their shoulders.  Sami whimpered, he could feel Mira's hair tickling his balls, moving over his thighs and when he dragged Mira down to kiss him he could feel it sliding over his arms and shoulders.  A little gasp and he rolled them over and began thrusting harder, and he cried out to feel Mira's legs wrapping around him, pulling him deeper his hands fisting in his hair.

Mira clamped down and shuddered, crying out his name.

Sami screamed and the world went white.

~0~

Freyja sighed and laid a thin blanket over the pair.  They likely wouldn't get any real work out of either for the rest of the day, but at least they were healing.

Now if they could just get those wretched girls to eat properly until they delivered.

~0~

Sami paced.  There wasn't much else he could do but pace.  They'd lost another of the women when she'd begun delivering early and hidden it until it was too late for Ylsa, Freyja and Tash to do anything to save the baby.

The next one was breech, and it had taken all their skills to save the child.  Mira was curled up with the baby boy as he minded the Holding's littlest while their mothers were out helping with planting.  Sami had almost cried when Tash came out and put the child in his arms.

He had pale, pale hair on his tiny head, they'd have to wait and see if the dark blue of his eyes shifted to Mira's green or the blue of the woman who had carried him.

Winter raiding had gone reasonably well, even if he hadn't yet found the trinkets he'd been half hoping for.  Linke had blinked at his question, but had said he'd keep an eye out.  And with Gustav having 'stolen' Tahvo's daughter then settled Ilse here back with an extraordinary bride’s chest their crew had even more reason to return.

Sammy winced when the scream from inside the cell was sharply cut off.  Then he held his breath in the silence that followed.  He learned quickly he couldn't hold his breath that long and fretted until he heard the squalling of a small child.  When Tash came out with the wrapped bundle he was reaching for it even as she was coming to him to hand it over.

“Another boy.  All the ones who miscarried had girls, sounds to me like your goddess is making a rather bloody point.”

Sami managed a wobbly smile as he looked down at the little one in his arms.  He was so tiny and had pale gold hair.  He also had a red wrinkly face and was wearing a spectacular scowl on his tiny face.

He needed to take Eicca to meet his brother Toumas and his other father.

Mira looked up from where he was swaddling their older son and smiled at Sami as he carried their new son over to meet them.

It wasn't quite how he'd planned things when he'd been a boy, but he had his family.


	2. Tirskelea: Amie

Amie had been working in the laundry when a fit of dizziness overcame her.  She'd caught herself on the edge of the washtub and focused hard to make things stop spinning.  The spinning settled but Amie grimaced at the cramping that settled over her belly.

Gentle hands touched her shoulders and made her jump with guilt and she looked up into the face of the senior sister who was in charge of the washing this week.

“That phase of the moons is it?”

Amie grimaced and nodded.  How she hated having her cycles hit so hard that she was dizzy and anyone who knew her well could tell by looking that her moon times were upon her.  She'd begun bleeding the night before and Cherie had run to get her the sponges and clouts the girls here used to catch their moon flow while Mira, bless his heart, had crept into the kitchen to get her a bit of tea and bread to help settle her stomach.

He might be a boy, but he was as good to his sisters as he could be.

The sister sighed and nodded, these things happened and Amie had come to try and do her chores, unlike a few of the new girls who flopped and whined and claimed to be unable to do anything on their moon days.  Blood would come and go; the work had to go on.

At least, Amie thought, she'd been able to help get the bed linens for her hall done.  And Mira had remade all their beds this morning before dawn devotionals.  His chore this turning was hauling water, he'd taken over for Cherie when she'd gotten sick and continued letting her take the lighter chores from both their lists as he took the heavier ones.

If he'd been at all attracted to women he'd have made some lucky girl an excellent husband.  But when the time of Dreaming came he'd dreamed of men, much to the relief of all the senior sisters.  And that was something that had confused all the juniors and novices; it was _Mira_, why did his Dreaming matter so much?  Other than his hair he was utterly ordinary and seemed to _like_ it that way.

Amie grimaced and obediently took herself off to the communal bathroom and then off to the room she shared with Cherie and Mira to lie down for a little while. At least it was only three days and she'd be back to herself again.

~0~

Amie huffed and handed over another heavy basket of wet wash.  Today none of the seniors had seen her dizzy spell and she'd been able to get through her stint in the wash house.  She shared a smile with Cherie and helped her friend hang wash until another spell hit her and this time she wasn't so lucky.  The senior sister scolded her for overworking and sent her off to take a nap in the orchards.  The rest of the novices coming for devotionals would wake her.

With a huff and a faint grumble she waved at Cherie and walked over to the apple orchard to doze under the waking trees.  More than likely before long the sister would send Cherie over as well to rest.

So she found the spot she, Cherie and Mira had been using since they were children and settled into the nest of worn blankets that they'd begged from the supply sister.  Each one made up of patches from other old and worn blankets and cut to be reused, these were still good, but not quite good enough to go on their beds unless it was terribly cold.

~0~

Amie woke feeling very strange, like the world was moving.  By now her courses should be almost complete so the feeling of the world spinning should be almost over.  She waited, the motion was less spinning and more like a gentle rocking front to back and slightly side to side.

A furious shriek and a yelp of pain had her eyes popping open in shock.

“Keep your _filthy_ raider hands **off** me you raping bastard!”

Amie stared at Cherie as she clung to a bunk and panted, staring furiously at a slim blond man who was half curled on his side a bit further down a narrow hall.  He was clutching at his groin in a way that made Amie think Cherie had refused an advance in a very direct manner.  She'd done it last summer once, to a young guardsman who hadn't understood the word 'no'.  The kick she'd landed on his tender male parts had left him incapable, at least for a little while, of pressing his suit.

Amie stared in shock down at her hands.  She was wearing shackles, and they were clipped securely to a heavy bolt at the head of the bunk.

Why was she shackled, why were the walls and floor and _ceiling_ wooden and not the stone she knew?  Why was the hallway nothing but bunks of both sides stacked three deep with a cubbyhole under the bottommost bunk?  Why was everything moving and why could she smell the sea?  She was getting really frightened when a man with wildly spiked hair decorated with feathers was at her side with a mug of something that smelled like tea and a bit of soft bread and a small bit of a very mild and soft white cheese.

“Shhh armas, shh.”

Amie blinked at him in confusion but ate and drank when prompted.  She flushed red when he asked gently if she needed to pee.  But he unclipped her shackles and helped her stand, even wrapped a warm blanket around her shoulders as he steadied her enough to walk to a bucket and take care of business.  She could hear a voice in teasing tones behind her, then that same voice shifted languages and suddenly she could understand him as he asked Cherie if she wished to eat and then to pee .

She looked back at her friend and saw the slender dark haired man was getting Cherie to eat something and drink some of the oddly citrus-y tea and then was walking her carefully down toward the bucket.

“Are you alright?”

Amie nodded.

“I was sleeping, I don't remember coming here.  How did we get here, who are these men?”  Amie swallowed the question of 'and what are they going to do to us' before it escaped.

“Raiders.  They came in and grabbed us and Mira and anything else their greedy paws could get to.”  Cherie shivered and flinched when the slim dark haired man gently wrapped a blanket around her.

Amie blinked.  The man who could talk to them had a shadow, a shadow with wildly spiked black hair and strange tattoos on his hands.  And the man beside her was watching with intent green eyes.  Were all the raiders dark haired, no, the one Cherie had kicked had had golden hair.  And **he** was pouting at the dark haired man who had wrapped Cherie in a blanket.

A sharp yelp attracted all their eyes back down the hall, and Amie saw Mira scrambling as best he could back to his feet and hissing in irritation and frustration.

“Sami?”  Yet another dark haired man, this one more square than any she'd seen so far was moving and beside a much larger man with a square of silk covering fairer hair who was sprawled into a bunk across from Mira.

“She _bit_ me.”  The man sounded shocked and it made Amie giggle a little.  Then Mira tried to kick him as Cherie had clearly done with her attacker, and this man was clearly wiser than Cherie's kidnapper, _he_ was trying to get out of range when the floor under them lurched and sent Mira to his knees.

Amie shared a look with Cherie.  They thought Mira was a girl.

The squarer man chuckled and teased the other man.

“Ah, trust you to get a girl who should be a red head.  Hold her for me so I can dose her again.”  He was reaching for a pottery bottle even as the bigger man spluttered a protest.

“**Again**? **_Already_**?”  But Amie noticed it didn't keep him from reaching for Mira and very carefully wrapping his big arms around him to hold him tightly.

Suddenly Amie was really frightened as she watched Mira struggle, she tried to go to him but found herself being held tightly.

“Shh, armas, be still.  Be still.”

“But, but what are they doing to h, her?”  If they didn't know Mira was a boy, she wasn't going to help them figure it out.  What if they only wanted women and would kill Mira?

The one who could easily speak to them answered.

“Just a potion to keep her calm.  So we don't have to fear you doing injury to yourselves.”  There was a flash of a smile as he looked at Cherie.  “Or to **_Us_**.  Torstig's kulta packs a mean kick.”

Cherie scowled before snapping.

“Then Torstig needs to keep his greedy paws to himself.”

Amie gulped when she saw the square man coming down the hallway.

“Lauri, Juke we need to get them back to their bunks.  That storm you saw is coming and we need to make sure they're safe.”

Amie gulped but neither she nor Cherie fought as they were led back to the bunks they'd awakened in and were coaxed to drink another cup of tea.  Somehow she didn’t think the square man had spoken in Trade by accident.  He wanted them to know why they were essentially being sent back to bed.

Amie kicked herself when she felt a familiar lassitude creep over her limbs.  She should have known they'd drug the tea.  She felt gentle hands holding her head as a bit of a slightly bitter brew was fed to her.  Amie recognized that taste.  She'd gotten fed it by Nurse on her moon days often enough until she'd learned to hide her dizzy spells better.

She felt those same gentle hands tucking her in and doing something, tying into the bunk it felt like.  Amie tried to open her eyes, but could only see green eyes in front of her and heard a bit of song from the man with the feathers.  Sleep claimed her as he stroked her hair and sang.

~0~

The next time she woke the movement under her was stronger, much more side to side and very much making her queasy.  The dark haired shadow was at her head before she'd moved very much and had undone a strap over her shoulder.  Once it was gone she wished it was back.  But he held steady and smiled at her and offered a cup of something, plain water her nose said.

“Lauri above,” his trade was oddly accented and he pantomimed groping his way through something.  “Seeing way through storm. He come later, when water smooth.”  The gesture of his hands described heavy waves smoothing to calmness.  Then he had a bit of flat bread folded over some cheese and was pressing it into her hands.  “You eat yes?  He worry you not eat.”

Amie blinked and traced a fingertip over the inked scales going up the man's right arm, the odd numbers on the backs of the fingers of his left hand and the hints of more ink she could see through the gapping collar of his shirt and all the piercings she could see in his ears.  But he insisted and she took the food and ate mechanically.

“Cherie?  Mira?” she asked as the man gave her more water.

He tucked his hands under one cheek and closed his gray eyes, miming that her friends were still sleeping.  Then the other man, the one with blue eyes who could speak clearly in the language of the island was there.

“I'm sorry, but we need to put you back to sleep again.  Atti is above helping keep the boat straight into the waves.”  The pottery bottle she'd seen used to dose Mira before was at her lips and she couldn't even protest before he was dosing her again.  As she faded again she heard his say something strange.

“I know Yu, I don't like it either.  But soon we'll be able to stop.”  Stop what she didn't hear; the darkness had taken her under again.

~0~

The third time she woke the rocking of the boat was minimal and there was a warm weight behind her in the bunk and the feel of a warm arm around her chest holding her tightly.  Amie turned very carefully to look.  She was still in the tunic and trews she'd been in the day they were all taken so she hadn't been assaulted in her sleep.

The man with feathers in his hair was cuddled up close behind her sleeping soundly.  He had dark circles under his eyes and was in desperate need of a shave, he also had a mark on his cheek that looked like something had struck him.  He was still fully dressed, at least in a tunic and trews, and it looked like he'd come in and fallen over.

Amie blinked when he shifted in his sleep to cuddle closer and mumbled something as he buried his face in her shoulder.

A soft chuckle had her jumping a little. The gray eyed man with all the tattoos was by her bunk again with a smile.

“He say sleep more treasure, you safe, we all safe.  He need sleep more, very hard working has been.”  He then carefully began helping her disentangle from his embrace. Then he helped her stand and walk back to the bucket to relieve herself.

Oh how she wanted a bath and to comb her hair.  But her guardian just led her back down the hallway, and she looked down at Cherie sleeping safely and Mira still soundly out in their bunks as she was led past and nudged up the steep steps to the floor above.

The light hurt after the dimness below.  But the square man and the tattooed one got her clear of the hatch and herded her to a spot near the front of the huge boat.  There they settled her down out of the way of the working men and gave her more flat bread and cheese and more water.

She hadn't taken more than a bite or two when the man who could talk to them was coming up on deck with Cherie.  They settled her safely beside Amie and brought her food and water as well and then left them be as they went about whatever business they had.

“This isn't the bread Cook made anymore,” Cherie observed.

“It isn't the soft cheese either, but that wasn't ours,” agreed Amie.

“No telling who they stole it from.”

“Traded for,” corrected one of the men close to them.  He was very short compared to the raiders they'd seen, and like many of the men they'd seen so far had dark hair.  His was so black it had little blue highlights in it and was very short on the sides and very long spiked wildly on the top and back.  He had bright blue eyes and grinned cheerfully at them.  “We traded for that, it's like the cheese my Jyrki's äiti makes just it comes from goats not sheep or cattle.”

They shared a blank look before Amie hazarded the question.

“What's a Jyrki?”

That got them a sunny grin full of mischief.  And the man plunked down beside them and pointed at the back of the boat toward a very tall man with his black hair tied neatly back in a tail.

“That's my Jyrki; the bear man beside him is Wulf.”  He then went on to name each man on deck.  The one who could talk to them was Julian, his shadow was Yu.  The square man was Atti, and was their Healer, something that the little man seemed terribly proud of. Then he named himself, Jussi and blinked those bright blue eyes at them.

Cherie blinked and gave her name and then Amie's.  They shared another look and Amie wondered why Jussi used such a proud and proprietary a tone when speaking about Jyrki.  Clearly the bigger man wasn't his son, so what was he?

Her thoughts were jolted by a large black bird dropping neatly to the deck to steal a bit of cheese that was lying neglected on her knee.

Jussi laughed at it and playfully swatted.

“Ewie, thief!  Your bonded is below sleeping the sleep of the righteously exhausted and we fed you and your brother’s the innards of the sheep that will be today’s lunch.  You can't already be hungry, glutton.”  The words were full of affection and the bird didn't do more than hop a bit and spread his wing in an odd avian shrug before gronking and cocking his head to show off his large yellow eyes.

Amei stared in shock at the great bird; he was easily twice the size of any of the islands ravens.  A breath later and the man with feathers was boiling out of the hatch and looking around frantically.  He calmed as soon as his eyes settled on her by the bow and he held out an arm for another huge raven to land on and said something Amie couldn't understand to the bird as it shuffled up to his shoulder to take a beak full of his hair and nibble.

“Why do Ewie and Hwurr tell me I need to look out for my armas?”  The tone was pointed and he braced his hands on his hips as he half scowled down at Jussi.

Jussi just leaned back on his hands and grinned impudently up.

“I was just making sure the pretties knew our names.  Maybe then we won't have to tend to our healer after Torstig pisses his treasure off again.”

Amie blinked and wondered at the faint flush on Cherie's face.

“Then he needs to get out of the way and not _help_ that bloody bastard.”

A shockingly deep voice spoke up.

“Atti is our Healer.  It is in his nature, just as it is in Sami's, to tend to people.” The mild tone turned chiding. “Jussi, stop flirting.”

Amie looked up and up at the tall man that Jussi had identified as 'his' Jyrki only a little while before.  He had intensely blue eyes and was scowling down at Jussi where he was leaning back on his hands and idly rocking his heels on the decking and looking up with a far to innocent face.

“I wasn't flirting.”

The sigh was speaking and suddenly the big man was moving and had Jussi over his shoulder with nothing but a yelp from the smaller man. Amie watched as Jyrki simply carried the smaller man off and down the steps to the floor with the bunks.

The only reactions she could see from the other men were fond smiles and headshakes.

A moment after Jyrki had taken Jussi down a familiar blond head came up and came bounding over to try and snuggle into Cherie's side. 

He yelped when Cherie reacted by swinging her shackled hands up into his groin and back-pedaled to land on hands and knees on the decking.  His tone was so plaintive and put upon even Amie was rolling her eyes.

“What was that for?  I just wanted a hug and a cuddle.”

There was a smattering of laughter from the other men and that confused Amie a fair bit, but she was starting to get queasy from the motions of the boat.  The man beside her, with his birds dropped to his knees.

“You are well?”  The tone sounded concerned.

Amie gave him a wan smile and waggled her hand in a so-so motion.

“The ship?”

She nodded, then blinked as he was off like a shot to the back of the boat, so fast the bird on his shoulder quorked and spread his wings for balance.  Amie blinked when he came back with an armful of wool and fur and a finely made horn cup filled with something that smelled strongly of mint and chamomile.  The cup he gave her with instructions to sip as much as she could, then he wrapped the fur and wool around her while muttering things to himself.

Cherie wasn't getting such care though.  The blond kept trying to wheedle a hug or a cuddle or a kiss out of her and Cherie was clearly reaching the end of her limited patience.

The aggravating man yelped as Cherie swung her bound hands at his head.  If he hadn't ducked she'd have bloodied his nose, split his lip or at the least given him a headache.

There was an angry hiss and Amie looked up from the cup to see Mira standing between Cherie and the annoying man.  Mira wasn't having as much trouble with the boat moving and was standing firmly between them and the rest of the men.

Well other than her bird man who was singing softly and stroking his hands over her temples to tray and ease the pain in her head.  His birds were watching her intently, the one on the deck going go far as to hop closer and worm his way under the cloak to make an odd ratcheting sound at her.

She tentatively reached a hand down and traced a fingertip over the birds head.  She gasped a bit when the bird turned his head in that odd way only birds can manage and tucked his head securely into her palm.

The singing stopped with a wry sounding snort.

“Ewie,” the next words she couldn't understand, but they sounded both fond and chiding.  But the bird just gronked and snuggled closer.

“You have a friend.” he warned softly.  “If you feed and pet him you'll never be rid of him.” the words were affectionate.  “His name is Ewie, he's the second of Othar's birds to lay claim to me.  Hwurr was the first.”  He nuzzled his face into the feathers of the bird still perched on his shoulder.  And Amie noticed that the shoulders of his tunic were padded and reinforced.  “Tlarr is flying high above us; he's keeping a watch to give us warning.”

“Warning of what?”

He shifted and settled her a bit closer, but his hands didn't rove over her breasts or hips like Cherie's odd attacker.

“This far out it would be bad weather, closer inshore, other raiders, settlements and hazards they can see under the water that we can't.  Rocks and reefs and things.”  Amie felt him shudder just as she heard Cherie's angry voice yelling.

“And keep your hands to yourself!”

Cherie's attacker was curled on the deck whimpering and Mira was apparently deeply asleep in the arms of the big blond from before.  Amie blinked at the look on his face as he stroked Mira's face and brushed the escaped bits of hair away over and over as the wind kept blowing it back.  She gulped when she realized they must have drugged Mira again.  How many times could they do that before Mira would never wake from it?

The man holding her sighed.  “Torstig never can let things be.  And Sami, Sami has no idea what to do when his chosen won't even speak to him.”

Amie gulped.

“What are you going to do to us?”

“I would make you my wife.  Torstig and Sami would wed your sisters.”  There was a little shrug.

“Then why steal us?  Why not go to Mother and ask?”

Amie blinked at the level of confusion in the green eyes that looked down at her, then gaped at his answer.

“We always steal our wives.  It's how we show we are serious.  We set up a place, goods, fields and cattle, everything for a family, only then will we go and steal the one the gods have set for us to marry.”

“I don't believe you.”

That got a resigned sigh.

“No, southern girls never do.  I don't know why your people don't do _civilized_ raiding.”

Amie wasn't sure quite what to think.

~0~

She'd been surprised to see a large number of the women of the Holding they were taken to wearing heavy torcs around their necks, very like that one she'd awakened wearing.  Cherie had one and the ends were elaborate eagles, Mira's had dragons and according to them hers had a pair or clever ravens complete with bright amber eyes.

Amie boggled a little when she realized for every woman with a torc there was a man somewhere with one that matched.  She watched in confused wonder as Nikki cuddled up behind his wife.  Freyja had taken charge of all three of them once they'd arrived.  And Amie liked the woman, she was level headed and as no nonsense as Cook and Nurse had been but clearly was a well loved figure in this odd house.  Sami had carried Mira, still in his drugged sleep right to her knee and pleaded with her in their language.  A language that was only slowly resolving itself into proper words in her head.  She'd thought he was begging her to help him make Mira love him.

And **that** was a _very_ odd request.

Lauri had carried her in, as her legs seemed to think the ground should move like the boat had, and settled her into a bed.  Her throat had closed over for an instant in fright, but after he'd made sure she was fed and had drunk her fill of sweetened herb tea he'd laid a bedroll on the floor beside her and slept there.  She'd begun dumping him out of the bunk on the boat; in his sleep his hands went places they really didn't belong.

But here he seemed to be intent on honoring his word to not touch her until she wanted him to.

The holding did have slaves, marked by a strangely made collar of bronze and held shut with an equally odd lock.  But they were dressed neatly, if plainly in tunics and trews of unbleached wool and linen.  They even had bits of bright embroidery in simple patterns around the neck and hems of their tunics, something that surprised her.  Something else that surprised her was that many of the thralls, as the slaves were called, didn't seem to _mind_ being slaves.  One even haltingly told her that these people treated her well and that one day it was possible that she would be free.

Free men from the group that had stolen her and Cherie and Mira did flirt with thrall women, but if the woman said no to an offer of disporting it was taken as a 'no'.  The men didn't force the woman down and take their pleasure anyway.  From the tales some of the senior sisters had told her and the other novices that was, well, not what she'd expected.

And Lauri kept bringing her things, pretty tunics and drops of amber to wear in the little rings in her ears.  The silver rings to confine her hair were replaced with ornately figured ones of red gold.  Not to try and buy her affections, but simply because they looked nice against her dark hair.  He helped her comb her hair if Torstig had already set Cherie all out of temper and made sure she knew where the safe places to bathe were at the river that ran behind the Holding.  He even asked his birds to make sure she was watched over, so now she almost always had one of the great ravens perched nearby not matter where she went.  And now she could tell all three birds apart.  Hwurr had three white feathers on his left wing.  Ewie's tail had a feather that was always longer than the rest, making it look like his tail had a tail.  And Tlarr's head feathers made it look like he had a crest.

Lauri was winning her over, enough that she was letting him sleep with her in his bed and not dumping him out when he started petting her in his sleep.  Torstig though, _that_ man had an extraordinary talent for setting Cherie out of temper.  His latest trick was to follow her around singing.

If it hadn't irritated Cherie so badly Amie would have died laughing.  The only thing funnier than a grown man following her friend around singing odes to her beauty and how her eyes flashed just before she kicked him in the balls was the fact that the _other_ lovesick idiot still hadn't figured out Mira was a **_boy_**.

Freyja knew Mira was a boy, and had sat him down one day after the last of the late planting was done and pried his sad story out of him.  Amie sighed, at least here the songs and tales of his father's and uncle’s idiocy weren't commonplace and requested fare at every major festival.  It had to be horrible to be reminded you were just a pretty pawn, an heir to your father's greed over and _over_ and **_over_** again.  Worse to have men looking at you and wondering if you were going to turn around and do something idiotic like they had just because of your blood.

Well Mira had proved his Mother's blood was the stronger.  Getting a promise out of him was very like pulling teeth from a hen, but once you had a promise.  Once you had even a _hint_ of that promise Mira would do everything in his power to keep his word.

Amie remembered it very well as a child; Mira had told her he couldn't promise to get her a strawberry tart from cooks first baking when she'd been held in sick.  But somehow that night he'd had one, broken and a bit and less than the perfect half circles Cook had handed out at supper, but he'd had one and the three of them had shared it.

Amie had to giggle.  Several of the men from the war band that had taken them were making plays for Mira.  Not the serious plays that Lauri was making of her, but the more playful ones where man and maid would tryst together with no expectations of anything further.

And Mira was leading them a merry chase.

Petri was covered all down his back with angry red welts from stinging nettle after he'd ordered Mira to make him a mattress with the intent of having him on it.  If the man had bothered to ask her or Cherie he could have learned Mira didn't react with welts to stinging nettle.  It was something Cook had taken advantage of every spring when the nettles began to grow up out of the ground before anything else green had lifted its head.  It was also something Ylsa and Freyja were taking advantage of, and nettle soup was served without the thralls showing the marks of the plants defenses.

Petri's shield brother, and she was getting used to the idea of unrelated men who were very good friends and fought shoulder to shoulder being called 'brothers', Juha had tried serenading Mira.  He'd picked a very bad time and had startled Mira into burning his arm against the pot that was boiling the water to do wash in.  In retaliation Mira had dumped the copper basin of dirty water over the man's head, then added injury to the insult by dropping the _basin_ on his head and pounding it vigorously with the wooden paddle he'd been stirring laundry with.

Several men had walked away with tears in their eyes and sore guts from laughing so hard.

Juha had given up and taken consolation in the arms of one of the thrall girls.

Amie stopped and watched again as Nikki cuddled up behind his wife and other than a grunt as she elbowed him for getting in her way he was refusing to be moved.

She watched as Freyja sighed and turned in Nikki's arms.  Amie suddenly asked the question that had been nagging her.  Her torc had ravens.

“Why doesn't Lauri wear a torc with ravens?”

Nikki let out a grumble as his wife turned, but then **he** answered before Freyja could.

“You haven't set it around his neck yet silly girl.”

Amie started.

“I haven't?”

Freyja swatted at Nikki until he reluctantly let her go and came over to sit by Amie where she was curled up in Lauri's bed.

“It's the way things are done.  A man steals his wife, either off on a sea raid or from a neighboring Holding, and sets a torc around her neck.  When she's accepted him she takes the matching ring and sets it around his neck as well.  Once they are in place only the hand that set it in place or death can remove it if the bond is truly intended by the gods.”

Amie's eyes suddenly tracked over to a small cloth bag she'd seen times beyond number now.  She reached for it and pulled the cloth away to reveal two ravens and a broken circle of heavy, braided gold wire.

She had something to think about.

~0~

She'd talked to Mira and Cherie and thought about it again for more than a week before she finally decided.

Lauri's reaction when she crept up behind him as he readied for bed had been priceless.  He'd looked like someone had hit him over the head with a board.

But then his face had lit up with a smile and he'd pounced her, bearing her into the bedding and burying her in kisses that were sweet and demanding.  His fingers had gone between her legs and found that place that brought her pleasure and began working it in hard tight circles, harder than she'd ever touched herself.  That alone made her gasp, but then he was mouthing down on her breasts through her shift and whispering words that made her insides shiver in delight.

Then he moved down, Amie had expected him to fling off her shift and shed his trews and drive his body into hers.  Instead he moved down and put his mouth on her down there.  Only after he'd nuzzled and licked and sucked her into shuddering and crying his name did he rise up and slide his maleness into her.

Suddenly the remark of one of the sisters back home made sense.  Done right this was amazing.

Amie couldn't help the little scream of pleasure as Lauri slid a hand between them and rubbed his thumb hard over her as he thrust into her.  She was pulling his hair, raking a hand down his back and shaking as he took possession of her.

But it felt so good, so very, very good.

~0~

Summer was spent with Lauri finding her in odd places and pouncing.  It became a regular thing for him to wake her in the morning by sliding into her and making her moan and cry his name.  The few times he was away from her overnight the very first thing he did was seek her out, wherever she was, and pounce her.

His brothers in the war band joked that he'd come back from Hella's gate just to have her one more time.

Torstig had finally worn down Cherie, and he was making up for lost time by cuddling her every chance he got.  Cherie still hadn't succumbed to his pleas for her to allow him to 'make her feel so good she'd scream his name.'  But Cherie had quietly admitted hearing how Lauri loved her was helping.

And Torstig proved to be fiercely protective.  He'd stood between her and a man twice his size from a neighboring Holding when he'd made a move to sweep her up into his arms.  The man had instantly backed down when he'd seen the gleam in Torstig's eyes.

Then Mira had finally succumbed to Sami.  He'd quietly admitted it was hard to resist him when he touched him with those big but gentle hands.  They'd been berrying when Cherie finally got the proof she'd been looking for that this wasn't just some game.  And Mira's secret finally got fully exposed.

A lone raider in his filthy and tattered tunics had come after them.  Torstig had yelped and shoved Cherie away and made sure to be between them and the raider as the massive man had swung a cudgel that seemed to be as big as he was around like it a was a twig.

Amie and Cherie had been frozen in place watching.  Not running back to the Holding and safety like Torstig had planned.  Mira had dug into his basket and pulled out the woolen sling he'd made and found a fallen nut to use.  With a few hard swings he got momentum up and the raider's head had snapped forward.  Then he'd gone to the ground with all the speed of a toppling tree leaving Torstig gaping at Mira.

He'd kept badgering Mira about where he'd gotten his skill and Iason had piped up that **_he_** wanted to know how a boy came to live in a place of women.

Mira's careful work came unraveling around his ears. 

He'd wound up telling his tale to all the members of the Holding as cared to hear it.

There hadn't been any mutterings about bad blood, and Sami had held Mira and whispered into his hair when it looked like he wasn't going to be able to continue.

But it was Lauri, her Lauri who set the cap on the proceedings.

“She made you Hers then.”  He said it like he was declaring that the sky was blue to a man who was blind.  Then he'd smiled and reached for her, before he continued.

“Now I understand, She made you Hers, so She changed you, that explains the soft cheeks and the color of your hair.”

Mira had blinked in shock.  It truly had never occurred to him that the color of his hair was unusual.  Clearly he'd thought his hair was like his mother's and Amirra had always had silver hair when she'd been in the Island.

“I can see why you'd be less than enthralled with telling that tale,” Lauri had mused as he'd cuddled her back into his chest and let Ewie crawl into her arms to finish out his nap.  “It's one thing to hide the true heir as a girl, another entirely to learn that your father is an oath-breaking idiot and your blood is simple coin for conquest.”  Amie had felt Lauri give himself a little shake and looked up to see him smiling down at her.  “I think we're better off with following the gods will in finding our lifemates.”

He yelped when Amie elbowed him in the ribs, not hard enough to hurt, or even to wake Ewie.  Just hard enough to remind him not to be an ass.  Mira was having a hard enough time without the Skalds teasing him.

“Even if you are raiding and kidnapping them?” she asked him impishly and collected a cuddle and a warm smile in return

“Even then, it's not our fault that you southerners have no concept of a friendly raid for wives.”  It had taken a lot of talking before Amie had been able to drill it through the man's skull that not _everyone_ stole their wives.

In fact she was reasonably sure most places had gotten distanced enough from their gods that if they had some equivalent to the Calling they no longer felt it so strongly.  And now that she'd seen a man taken with his Calling, she had no doubts these Northmen felt their gods will like a blow to the head.

Amie had to giggle at Sami's tease about unpredictable Picti.  She'd grown used to Yu's gentle but mischievous nature.  He and Julian went out of their way to be kind to her and Cherie and Mira.  But she had no doubts that if anyone hurt Julian, Yu would follow them to the ends of the world to exact retribution.  In his tunics he looked like any of the other men, slimmer certainly but his hair was no wilder than her Lauri's.

Out of his tunics though, that was another matter.

Amie had stumbled across Yu and Julian loving once and been frozen in shock at the extensive markings in blue black ink across Yu's pale skin.  Great wings covered his back, odd glyphs marked his shoulders, a strange bird the right side of his chest.  He had a pattern of scales marching from his right hand up his arm and numbers set on the back of the fingers of his left hand.  He wore three gold rings in his left ear, five in his right and if the mood struck him, three threaded through his lower lip and one though his right nostril.

Lauri had come and led her away and told her his story.  He had crept up on their war band one night and been struck by Julian.  The camp had awakened to the sounds of their loving and at dawn Yu had been gone.  But when they'd gotten back to their ships he'd been aboard, curled up and waiting in Julian's bunk.

He'd also told her how a few of the other male pairs had come to be together.  Jukka had found Jonne in a raid of a monastery of the White Christ.  Literally tripped over him if Lauri was to be believed.  Jonne had been disconsolate because his family had left him there because, like Mira, he was a lover of men.  Jukka had been taken by the Calling (looked like he'd taken a blow to the head really) and refused to leave the young man behind.  Jonne had crept into his little cell and taken everything his father had left him with and run back to Jukka.

The little thing had **_run_** back to Jukka and come back home with him.  And from what Amie could see they were hopelessly besotted with each other.

Jyrki's collection of Jussi had been a bit more conventional, if there was such a thing.  He'd been helping his younger brother steal his wife and seen a very young Jussi in the Holding doorway.  He'd been halfway home with Jussi in his arms before he realized he'd left his younger brother behind.  The next day he very reluctantly returned a thirteen year old Jussi to his father's longhouse.  But two years later he'd raided again and this time Jussi hadn't been too young to keep.

Otti still teased him about it, but Annekke still threatened Jyrki with castration if he ever hurt her baby brother.  Amie had seen her do so once even as she was handing her youngest child over to Jyrki for minding!

Here love was love, and gender played no role at all.  Young men often got girls pregnant while trysting, and as long as everyone knew whose was whose it wasn't an issue.  Jyrki himself had three boys by as many mothers in varying places.  The eldest had come for fostering this summer and little Yannie was nothing more than a slim bond version of his father.  Given time he'd likely be as tall and his voice when it stopped cracking was sounding like it would be as deep.

Amie sighed and settled deeper into the arms of the man who loved her.

And now she had no doubts.

Lauri loved her.

~0~

Watching the men off for raiding season was disquieting. There were more ravens lurking about but none were as openly affectionate with her as Ewie.

If Mira hadn't been aboard she might not have been as worried.  But Jyrki and Nikki seemed to think it was important.  She expected they'd hear Sami yelling about it the instant he found out, even if they were three days out to sea.

They'd barely been gone six weeks when they were back again.  And that had a number of folk worried.  Early returns were either very good or very bad.  The raid that had taken them had been something of an exception.  That he been a go out, hit _one_ place and run home.  They'd stopped once for a bit of trade and had been gone barely three weeks.

At least there were three Dragons sailing up.

Yu popped over the rail and scampered up to give Freyja a hug, but he was the only one with anything like his usual energy.  Nikki looked exhausted, Amie felt her hands go up to cover he mouth when she saw Lauri stumble.  Two of his brothers had him under the arms and were hauling him up to plant him squarely at her feet.

He smiled wanly up at her and rose to hug her tightly and murmur that they’d had a very bad storm to get through and he'd spent a lot of strength on his birds.  Amie frowned intently until she saw all three safe and sound if sleeping being gently carried off the boat.  Only then did she drag her idiot raven Skald back up to the longhouse and scrub the salt from his skin and tuck him securely into bed.

Of course then she had to get in as well, only then did he settle and actually _rest_.

She missed seeing Sami carry Mira off the boat and take her straight to him mother's knee.

She didn't miss them doing a Working two days later to clear the poison of the wound fever from Mira's arm, nor did she miss how protectively Torstig was curled around Cherie.

~0~

Some questions never got really answered.  But Amie adjusted to Lauri making up for all the days he'd missed by waking her with loving. If she wasn't busy with some task he'd pounce her for loving during the day and he'd had her more than once out in the snow.

Spring made it harder for him to just pounce and get away with it.  But once the initial planting was done and summer rolled around he used the excuse of fishing the river more than once to steal her away.  By harvest she'd noticed she was late and getting queasy in the mornings.  She also noticed that of the Ravens lurking about the Holding were keeping her constant company.

It was amusing to see some of the visiting warriors give her wide eyed stares when she had Ewie in her lap begging treats.  But she'd heard the whispers.

She was the wife of a Raven Skald, and clearly he valued her more than ten times her weight in silver to have one of his birds watching over her.

Amie heard other whispers as well.  Dealing with how protective Torstig was of Cherie, and one man had made an ill considered comment about how lusty Cherie must be in bed to warrant such loyalty from a Skald well known for his love of women.  **_All_** women.  Torstig had gotten right in the man's face and growled about wasn't Cherie worth such loyalty and then listed off her virtues, including the fact that she was willing to call him an idiot to his face!

That had had her giggling and had Cherie calling Torstig an idiot, loudly, in front of their guests.  Then she'd told him to come help haul firewood or she'd dump him out to sleep with the sheep!  Amie had giggled herself half silly when Torstig had given the man a 'so there' grin and gone to haul firewood.

But the whispers about Mira made her a bit more concerned.  If Sami hadn't clearly been begging him to wear nicer things, Amie was a bit worried that one of the younger warriors might have tried carrying Mira off.  And that wouldn't have worked so well.  For one Mira would have raised all unholy hell about it, and two he was a harder target now than he had been when they'd all been novices.  And that was just _Mira's_ reaction; Sami was likely to commit murder if anyone tried to take Mira from him.

But Sami combed Mira's hair out every morning and braided it back up.  The plain silver rings he had worn had been replaced with more ornate versions set with emerald and Arabian black pearls and while they had guests Mira didn't fuss too much.  Somehow Sami had convinced Mira to wear a patterned silk.  It was still gray, and lacking the bright embroidery so common to the clothing here, but it was a very heavy and very intricately patterned silk.

It still got Sami looked at rather strangely.  And Lauri had to explain it to her.

“We dress to our status.  I wear raven feathers in my hair; it's both a declaration of my status and a warning that I'm a Raven Skald.  And we dress our wives and children to show both their value to us and to show our wealth.”

“So Ewie being cuddly is a status thing?”

Lauri had laughed.

  

  1. But to outsiders it's a very big deal for one of my birds to be so cuddly; they don't know him like we do.”  Lauri's smile was fond.
  



“So, why the grumbles about Mira?”

Lauri winced.

“Mira refusing to dress well makes visitors think he isn't valued.  At least until they see Sami pleading with him and brushing out his hair in the morning.  It makes Sami look rather ill mannered.  To have so fair and hardworking a spouse and not shower them with as many presents as he can.”  Lauri shook his head and shrugged.

Amie rolled her eyes.  Mira had as fine a trinket box as she and Cherie had.  The only reason they weren't as fine as Freyja or Ylsa's was simply they hadn't had _their_ husbands collecting pretties for almost thirty years.  Ylsa had explained to her that the chests of jewels were both a way for their men to show how they valued their wives and a protection in case they died.  A widow rarely married a second time and the jewels would provide for her and any minor children left behind.  Quite often though they were a legacy for children and grandchildren.

Lauri smiled.

“Yes, I know it's not from lack of trying on his part.  All of the Holding knows it's Mira not dressing finely, not Sami not _trying_ to dress him finely. I think half the valley was privy to their last fight over things fit for work and things _not_ fit for work.”

Amie had to giggle.

“And the entire longhouse was privy to Sami finally winning his fight at least when we have visitors.”

Lauri grinned, and swept her up in his arms.

“Speaking of that, we should test the new featherbed.”

~0~

Things went well until she fainted getting a bit of ale for a group of visitors.  Lauri had panicked.  But once he knew why she'd fallen he d swept her up in his arms and spun her dizzy.

She was familiar by now with all the tricks women used to determine the gender of an unborn child.  But she'd never expected Lauri to pull out a rarely used handful of bones to do a divination with.  She also hadn't expected him to ask Tlarr, Hwurr and Ewie their opinions.  But from the circle of expectant faces this was something Raven Skalds did when their wives were expecting.

The look on Lauri's face when he threw the bones told her he really didn't care _what_ he got as long as they were healthy.

But then the birds pulled the bones for a boy out of a toss that even to her inexpert eye said boy _and_ girl.

Lauri might be babbling about proper presents but she shared a look with Cherie.

She'd plan for two, just in case.

~0~

Ylsa thought she might be further along than expected and that the men off raiding might bring Lauri home to face his children in person.  But according to Freyja that wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

Hysterical husbands tended to get in the way.

Of course then Aethar protested that he hadn't been hysterical at Ella's birthing.

Both older women had exchanged a look that had Amie giggling.

Uther's brother was a good man, but had no heart for fighting and after a childhood illness left him with limited use of his legs, no body for it either.  Aethar kept the Holding accounts, and was a lion in trade even if he wasn't one on the battlefield.  But he'd apparently still fainted when presented with his last child.  If Katrin's remarks were to be believed it was almost a tradition, she presented her husband with a child and he fainted.

Someday she wanted to hear the tale of how he'd 'stolen' his wife.  If wasn't like he could run in and carry her off.

~0~

Two months later and Amie wasn't giggling, she was wishing Lauri was there.  Then she could **_strangle_** the bastard for putting a child in her belly.

She panted and pushed when Ylsa told her to, and screamed when the pain was too much.  Cherie was right there wiping the sweat from her forehead and letting her know how things were going.

She was fed up with hearing 'soon', 'now' would be _much_ better.

“Push now, push hard.”

Amie screamed and pushed.

This time something gave and a moment later she heard Ylsa crooning 'there's a brave boy' to her son.

Halfway there.

She screamed again.

The instant that bloody bastard was back she was ripping his dick _clean_ **_off_**.

~0~

Lauri woke her from a sound sleep.  Not by bouncing up beside her and babbling, but by fainting dead out over her legs.  Ylsa and Freyja were there, each holding one of her little ones and looking profoundly amused.

Amie sighed and gave him a hard poke to the ribs, then a firm shake until he floundered back awake.

“Twins?”  His voice was meek.  Meek enough that Amie was willing to forgive him, for now anyway.  Then her heart melted a little when his children were put in his arms and he clearly had no idea which one to gush over first.  Right now both of them had heads of soft dark hair and the dark blue eyes all babies had.  But they were barely three days old.  Soon their eyes would change away from the blue, and Amie wasn't sure yet what she was hoping for.

Amie blinked as Torstig came in babbling like an idiot with Cherie cradled in his arms.  Her friend rolled her eyes as Toro fretted until one of the little ones woke with a hungry little wail.

Then he spun in place and stared like an idiot for several long moments as the wet nurse Ylsa had found came in to take her son from his father's arms to feed him.  They still weren't sure if Amie would ever produce enough milk for even one of her children, never mind _both_ of them.

Torstig stared, then he dropped to the bed beside Cherie, turned to look at her and slumped over in a dead faint.

Ylsa snorted.  And all the women exchanged amused looks before chorusing.

“**_Men_**.”

~0~

Amie had been sobbing in a mix of shock and joy.  Lauri, of course, was beside himself and half threatened to kill Yu.  The Picti had just blinked and blandly stated he'd just passed on a message.  He'd made Lauri fish for the message a bit then told him and gone back to making funny faces to amuse her son.

Amie hiccupped and rubbed her cheek over her daughter’s hair.  She'd almost forgotten that her grandmother could still be alive.  She'd been very old when she'd been born and her father had been all for exposing her on the hillside.  He had three daughters already and didn't need a forth.

Her mother had begged and in the end her grandmother had taken her away.

Cherie knew the story, as did Mira.  But Mira had a skewed viewpoint of parental love and duties.

Amie settled closer into Lauri's side and watched as one of the ravens that had begun lurking about during her pregnancy hopped up and cocked his head.  Not at her son like half the Holding expected, but at her _daughter_.

Lauri gaped and whipped his head around to look at Hwurr.  But his raven just gronked at him in apparent amusement.

Then Torstig was babbling like a lunatic and Cherie was panting in pain and everything else was set aside as her Freyja and Ylsa prepared for Cherie's birthing.

~0~

Mira smiled faintly and shoved Torstig back at the main fire.  Cherie had just blistered the air with a particularly scathing set of oaths and followed it with a scream.  Torstig was whiter than fine linen and looked sick but kept trying to go into the longhouse to be with his wife as she struggled to deliver their child.

Last time it had been Annekke who caught him and after clipping smartly him around the ears, sent him back to where the men were gathered.

The second time it had been his own sister tripping him as she and the girl Iason had brought home carried boiled water and clean cloths inside.  Torstig had no better luck navigating the woman's full skirts than Iason did and he'd flailed around comically before landing hard on his ass.

Now Mira had settled himself squarely in Torstig's way and was refusing to let him get to his wife.  He'd been the only male allowed inside and even Sami had bowed to that.

There was another shriek and then silence.

This time Torstig barreled past everyone and into the longhouse to get to Cherie's side.

He gulped when he saw all the blood and whimpered in worry as he staggered to the birthing bed almost all of the Holding's children had been delivered on.

Cherie was so pale, so still.  He dropped to his knees by her and reached to stroke her hair away from her face.

“Cherie?”

She turned her head to face him and wearily opened her eyes.  Only after she smiled did Torstig look around and see Freyja and Ylsa wrapping a small bundle.

“Is, did...” Torstig's voice stuttered to a halt when Ylsa laid the small bundle in Cherie's arms.

“You have a son, Skald.  But there will be no others from your wife.”

Torstig gulped and nodded.  As long as he had his Cherie safe he didn't much care.

~0~

Amie chewed her lip as she watched Torstig cuddling his wife like she would break.

“How do you know?”  She asked Ylsa.

“How do I know?”

“That Cherie won't carry another child.”  It had looked to her like Cherie's delivery had been much faster than her own had been, but she didn't remember there being so much blood.

Ylsa sighed as she began the clean up and directed the younger women in the process of restoring order to the longhouse.

“It's my gift.  When children are born I can see if there will be others.  And you, for all the troubles your courses give you, can carry more babies.  You won't for a while though.” there was a fond smile.  “Lauri will be far more careful in spite of his need for you.”  The smile faded into a faintly sad look.  “Your sister though, she's lucky to have carried this one.  Something tore and only having three midwives with the gift of Earth kept us from losing her and the child both.”

Amie blinked.  Ylsa and Freyja both had helped when she'd had the twins.  And as far as she knew were the two most gifted midwives the Holding held.

“Three?  Who?”

Her eyes followed Ylsa's gaze to the brown woman Atti had brought home.

Amie forced herself not to stare.

Their Healer had brought home a Healer?  She'd thought he'd just brought home a wife and child.

~0~

Little Mikko liked squealing and waking everyone in the night.  Elise was quieter, but she and the two birds that hovered over the cradle she shared with her brother seemed to have a constant conversation going.

Lauri had no idea what to do.  Everyone had expected the ravens to bond to his son.  And now that the little ones were all crawling about it was painfully obvious Mikko was more attached to the Holding's _cats_ than he was to any bird.

Elise though could do almost anything she liked to the great birds.  Something that had more than one visitor going white faced in shock.  But if they had tried simply touching one of the birds they'd likely have gotten pecked at the very least.  And Elise was tugging wings and feet and hugging the birds tightly without them doing anything but sigh.

He had no doubts that the news of a girl bonding to Othar's great battle birds would be spread throughout the Holdings before midsummer.

But his children were healthy for all they were eating mush already.  His eyes rested on his Amie. She was well, and he'd already figured out a way of ensuring his dearest didn't have to worry about another child for a little while.

Lauri hid a grin when he saw Cherie going out after Torstig again.

You'd think the man would learn.

A strangled yelp told him that Cherie had found her target.

He wondered if this time she'd throw him down, yank his trews down and mount him where he lay.

That might get Cherie's point across.

He'd have to mention it to Amie.

~0~

Amie thought she was going to die laughing when Cherie told her about getting caught in one of the high meadows.  But it did explain why Torstig had finally gotten over being an idiot about loving her.

When the old Skald had come in she'd thought Mira was going to get hurt when he planted himself between the old man and her children.  One of his guards had raised a hand to slap Mira out of the way and called him a thrall.  But the old man had caught his man's sleeve after the first blow and given him a look.

Sami had gotten sat on by Iason and Atti to keep him from demanding a very personal apology for the insult.

But then the man had been pinned in place by Mira's glare and blanched white.

He'd been very well mannered for the rest of the old Skald's visit.  And no one had quite figured out what had happened when Mira had locked gazes with him.

Whatever it was word spread.

It was just hard to see Mira as anything but ordinary.  Especially when he was covered in chaff and sweat from culling ergot from the harvest.  Especially when his cropped hair was escaping its ring and flying around his face.  And especially when he was helping tend the little ones the war band had brought back in their last raid.

Nothing was less intimidating than a man singing a baby to sleep.

But by the end of harvest she had other things to worry about.  Her two increasingly mobile children for one.

~0~

Amie was familiar with midwinter celebrations, and the Holding was well supplied for feasting and would be able to last until they could harvest their winter crops.

What shocked her was that they put out all the fire and lamps, every bit of flame but one metal pail full of coals was extinguished.

With the cloud cover that made it frighteningly dark.

She'd giggled a bit at the idea of gods lots.  Now though; seeing Mira with knee length hair when only a few hours before it had been just past his collar bones, now it was more than a little frightening.

Seeing the great log go up like it had been soaked in pitch and earth oil when she knew for a fact it hadn't was even more frightening.

Only Mira being able to subdue a grumpy Sami was normal, his reason for being grumpy was so out of character she'd held silent in shock.

She'd gotten a whispered explanation from Lauri that night in their bed as they listed with awe and a bit of concern as Sami and Mira loved loud and long.  Amie had been mind boggled as she strained to hear Lauri's words over Torstig's pleas and lusty cries.

The god’s lot wasn't just a festival trick or nod to the deities.

If they chose to they could posses the bodies of the men and women who drew their lots.

And none of the folk who were possessed ever remembered what they did while the gods steered their bodies.  Torstig had been possessed by the Trickster before, and had gotten a woman with child that night.  At some point his oldest son would be coming to the Holding for fostering.

Cherie had found out and all but sat on her husband to learn about his other children. And Amie had asked Lauri if there were other little ones around.

There were three little boys, but all of them were born no more recently than a year and some months before Lauri had come to steal her away.  And as far as he knew none of them had raven's come to watch _their_ birthing.

It helped a little seeing Lauri doting on his children, singing them to sleep and dangling toys for them to reach for.  And he still cuddled her tight in their bed every night.  From what she'd seen Lauri didn't see any other woman but her.

Seeing him come running up the path from the docks when he'd been out helping the fishing fleet made her heart rise.

Lauri always ran home to her, always swept her up in his arms.

It helped.

~0~

Amie giggled when Sami swept Mira off for a bit of private time.  If she hadn't still been helping nurse her twins Lauri would have stolen her away already, as it was he was pouncing her and hiding her away for a few hours when the twins were sleeping.

It was a nice summer pastime when there wasn't other urgent work to be done.  Spinning and weaving, cooking and cleaning, sewing and mending, all those things still happened. But some days there were a few pairs of hands short as men stole their wives away to remind them no matter how many children there were, **_they_** were the reason their men came home.

But then Sami and Mira were late returning.

The weather had been good, warm and clear, so a rain storm wasn't the reason for the delay.

Lauri had sent his ravens off in the general direction of Sami's little hidey hole.  No point in going charging off if they'd just lost track of time.

They hadn't lost track of time.

Lauri had huddled up with Iason, Yu and Julian before he'd gone in search of Uther and Wulf.

By then Amie had learned from Cherie what was going on.  Torstig had been with Iason when they'd gone to physically check Sami's lodge.

Someone, a large group of someone's had taken Sami and Mira captive.

Yu had already gone out to see what he could learn as the rest of the war band collected and organized.

Cherie was fuming, and after Aethar explained she'd gone white in a mix of fright and rage.

The group of Iriet followers from last Midsummer gathering had taken Sami and Mira.  All because Mira had carried the Goddess at Midwinter.

It made her sick.

What would they do to her friend, to his husband?

~0~

Jyrki had come sprinting into the Holding and gone right to Freyja's knee, unlike every other time Amie had seen Jyrki approach Freyja there was no smile or gentle embrace, but a panted message and the woman suddenly standing up stiffly.

Then something she'd never seen before.  The best archers ran to their home spaces and gathered up their bows and the lethal arrows used for the hunting of men.

All she could do was hug her babies tightly and watch as Cherie joined the archers and followed Yu back out, up past the fields and into the woods.

~0~

If she'd thought Cherie was angry when she'd left she was livid when she came back.

Atti had been strapped to a board and carried back; Sami and Mira were held up by caring shoulders as they mostly walked under their own power. Iason had been white lipped in fury as he helped herd a line of women locked in the wooden neck and wrist stocks toward one of the barns.

Tash had hurried to her husband’s side only to learn he would be fine, a Working had knocked him soundly on his ass.  So she firmly tucked the man into his bed and checked over Mira and Sami.

Amie asked Cherie what had happened in a low hiss of worry.

“They wanted Sami and Mira to father children on them.”

“But didn't they say 'no' at midsummer?”  Amie suddenly had a very bad feeling about things and watched as Tash decreed Sami and Mira needed more rest.  The pair was snuggled tightly together, as if afraid that if they let go the other would be stolen away.  They'd shared a bowl and cup and then been sternly ushered off to their bed.

“They did.  But those bitches didn't accept that no.”  Cherie let out a little sob, and leaned into Torstig as Lauri came up behind Amie to snuggle her tightly.

“What, what did they do?”

Lauri sighed and buried his face in Amie's tunic.  Torstig grimaced and answered.

“They used a potion called White Myrtle to force Sami and Mira to try and begat children.  We'll hold them until we know if any took or not.  A council will be called to judge their crimes.  And those that aren't pregnant will be punished.”

“And if they are pregnant.”

Lauri answered.

“After the deliver safely, if they deliver safely, they will be punished as well.”

Amie gulped as she watched one of the thralls come out in a huff after she'd gone in to give water to the captives.

Suddenly she didn't want to know.

~0~

Amie had been sickened when she listened to the women try and defend themselves.

Their only defense was that Mira's bloodline needed to be preserved.  And daughters would be the ideal way to do so.

She'd walked out.

It was rather a foregone conclusion, these women were dead.

~0~

Amie fumed as she helped deal with the aftermath of another bloody mess of a miscarriage.  She'd already noticed that the women tended to not make it and that if there was anything identifiable of the unborn child it so far was always a girl.

Rather made her think the goddess was more than a touch displeased with this lot of misguided idiots.

After the first one walked into the bay and drowned herself they'd been more careful, but they'd still had some kill themselves.

And now with the council having rendered a judgment the rest who weren't pregnant were going to face their fate today.

Jyrki had finally agreed with Aethar that one of the fishing boats just wasn't repairable and it had been patched up just enough to make it float its way out to sea one last time.  The guilty were tied and loaded aboard and it was towed out to sea.  At first Amie though they were going to just let the foundering vessel sink, then Ylsa had drawn her bow and let Jussi light a bundle of reeds soaked in oil tied behind the stone head alight.

Amie gulped as she watched as a few other women draw back similar missiles and loose them into the boat.

It went up, all the tar soaking its planks burning eagerly.

Lauri firmly pulled her face into his chest, and closed his eyes as his voice began the chant to sing a criminals soul to rest so it couldn't come back and bother the living.  Amie gulped and hugged Lauri tight as she listened to the wind, the waves and the sounds of the fire eagerly burning.  She could hear Atti and Torstig singing and a few louder splashes.

She didn't turn and look.

She didn't want to know.

~0~

Watching Atti getting flattened to the dirt while Tash was in labor made Amie wonder how Lauri would react if he was home when they had another child.  She'd gotten used to seeing Tash and Atti disagree over everything and anything, so seeing her stomp up to him hadn't gotten her attention.  The swift kick she served his balls though, **that** got everyone's attention.  And more than one woman had sighed and muttered that they understood even as the men winced and clutched themselves.

Somehow Amie didn't think it would take four and six of Lauri's larger brothers to keep him from coming in to try and help though.  Tahvo, Iason and Sami weren't small men, but without Wulf and Nikki and Jyrki helping Atti would have gotten lose the first time Tash screamed.

Atti still got lose when Tash stopped screaming and even rumpled and dirty he was at his wife's side to meet his son for the first time.

Amie spun in place when she heard Lauri gleefully yelp, 'she's walking' behind her.

Elise was standing and taking unsteady steps while her brother sat and watched with wide eyes.

~0~

Amie was sick and furious.

One of the stupid bitches had gone into labor and hidden it.  The baby had been in a bad position as early as she was and even Tash slicing open her belly to try and save the child hadn't worked.  Torstig had sung the bitch to rest and Lauri had sung the baby girl to hers.  The mother had been dropped into the sea with no real fanfare, the baby had a tiny copy of a longboat with beads and blankets to tell the women in Othar's hall that even thought she'd not survived long enough to draw her first breath she'd been wanted.

It just made her so _angry_ the woman knew she was dead, so she had to destroy an innocent life for pure spite.

So much for ensuring a blessed bloodline got carried on.

At least there were only two more left.

~0~

Amie blinked in shock when Tash came out and laid a tiny bundle into Mira's arms.  They'd been minding the littlest babies while everyone else did the hard labor of plowing and planting the first of the spring fields.  She'd known one of the women had gone into labor, but so had two other Holding women, so she hadn't been sure who the child would go to.

Thank the goddess they had more than one midwife.

Atti came out and shook his head at Sami's question.  Then he went into the longhouse to help with one of the other delivering mothers.

At least this little one would have plenty of mothers to help keep him fed.

Sami and Mira looked utterly captivated as the little one squinched his little face up and let out a yowl of protest.

“Toumas.”

Sami nodded.

Amie just rolled her eyes.  At least they weren't naming the poor thing for Mira's bastard of a father.

~0~

Not even a week later and the last of the women went into labor.  And Amie watched as Sami did what she was starting to call the fatherhood dance as he paced outside the last cell and listened as the last woman, girl really, screamed under the waves of contractions.

Lauri grimaced and caught Mikko as he went scooting past after one of the Holding cats and Amie had to smile as he scolded his son for muddying the bottom half of his tunic.  Mikko didn't care, he just squealed and chanted i-a, i-a over and over.  Elise had been fed and was sleeping soundly with one of her birds patiently suffering being cuddled like a doll.

Then the screaming stopped and after a long silence the wail of a baby began.

Sami was reaching for the baby even as Tash came outside.

“Another boy.  All the ones who miscarried had girls, sounds to me like your goddess is making a rather bloody point.”

Amie grimaced, but she could see Tash's point.  No baby girl had lived.  Just the two boys.  Sami didn't seem to care; he only had eyes for his new son and walked like a sleepwalker over to where Mira was minding the older one to introduce him to the rest of his family.

Amie blinked and smiled at Lauri, her giggling son and her sleeping daughter.

She had a family to take care of too.


	3. Triskelea: Cherie

Cherie sighed when the senior sister shooed Amie off toward the orchard.  Hanging wash was deadly dull.  At least with Amie around they could giggle and talk while they worked.  She ducked her head when the sister looked over at her and took the empty basket over to the line of others that was drying out after having wet linens in it.  Then she grabbed one of the ones that was dry and walked back to the start of the rows upon rows of drying lines strung up.

By now some of the bedding _had_ to be dry.

She'd barely begun un-pegging the sheets when she heard a scream.  Cherie groaned.

The new girls were dreadful, screaming and shrieking about the least little thing.  It was spring, there were going to be insects coming awake, and if this was another case of a wasp coming out of the ground Nurse was going to be furious.

Then she felt strong arms around her, and a lean hard body taking her to the ground.

Cherie yelped and turned to yell that she was working with clean linens and shoving her, and thus them, into the dirt wasn't a good idea.

But it wasn't any of the younger novices.  It was a man.

A man with blue green eyes and bright golden hair under a helm.

And he was wrapping her up in the sheets she'd just taken down, even grabbing others to wrap tightly around her then taking a spare belt of some kind from around his narrow hips and using it to cinch everything in tight so she couldn't move her arms.

Cherie yelped as he dragged her back to her feet, then she yelled and screamed and kicked as hard as she could in the hopes she might hit somewhere important and make him drop her.

The bastard had a grip of iron and was not letting her go as she shrieked, swore and thrashed as best she was able.

An angry shriek came from her left and Cherie had to look.

Another bigger blond raider had tried serving to Mira what this bastard had done to her.  But Mira had taken the carry yoke he'd been using to haul water to the bastards side.  She wanted to scream for Mira to run, but he wasn't quick enough to escape.  He tried bashing the raiders head in with a bucket, but he ducked and the blow from Mira's elbow to his jaw wasn't enough to stun him.

Cherie screamed when the big man grabbed her friend and swore savagely as her captor kept carrying her at an unsteady walk away from the temple yard.  She looked back and could see Mira was doing his best to fight, kicking, biting and struggling as hard as he could.  But Mira was slim, slim enough most visitors thought he was a flat chested girl.  And though he was tall his captor was taller and far and away broader.

She kicked and struggled and let out a cry as she saw a square man with brown hair moving away from another raider and his burden of a girl with a long dark braid.  He shook his head and walked over even as the shorter man gently hefted Amie up in his arms and carried her up a narrow plank onto a boat she'd only ever heard described, never seen.

A Dragon, a Viking long boat of the larger sort.

She swore and tried to bite the hand that reached for her face, but the square man had a hand on her braid and forced a mouthful of something bitter into her mouth.  She couldn't spit it out and half choked as she swallowed.  Another mouthful and the world was getting fuzzy around the edges.

Cherie sobbed as she saw the man turn away and walk toward the big man who held a struggling Mira in his arms.  She wanted to cheer as Mira managed what she hadn't, and spat the first mouthful of the bitter brew in the man's face, but then her captor had carried he where she couldn't see and the drug was dragging her under.

~0~

She woke with a violent start and was struggling instantly and lashing out as best she could with her feet and her bound hands.  She'd gotten free of the bunk and was trying to find Amie or Mira when a set of hands reached for her.  She thrashed and kicked harder.

A high yelp told her at least one of her kicks had landed, so she kept fighting and was rewarded with a pained grunt and what sounded like an oath.  But then there were many hands holding her down as the Square man and his bottle came back.  He wasn't as gentle this time as he had been before and Cherie found herself being dosed again.

This time she went limp, and after the first bitter mouthful they let her be.  So this time she was able to observe in a rather groggy fashion.

She got to see the square man without a shirt getting a rapidly darkening bruise across his kidneys poulticed with a strange smelling green paste.  She also saw that damned blond rapist who'd snatched her wheezing in well deserved pain as he clutched at his male parts.  The man helping him had spiky dark hair decorated with, were those feathers?  And wasn't he the bastard who'd been holding Amie?  Pity she hadn't been able to nail him in the balls as well.

She was a little afraid, in a distant drugged out way, when she couldn't see Amie or Mira.

But then she heard a yelp of pain and saw the square man's shoulders heave in a great sigh as he reached for that cursed bottle again and move down.

There was a scuffle and the big man who had taken Mira was walking past.  She couldn't understand what was being said Sami something and the square man's voice sounded chiding.  He said something and the blond man voiced a pained protest.

The bastard who had taken her was Toro; the big blond must be Sami.

Cherie tried to hang onto her thoughts but the drug was taking effect and the world slid away.

~0~

The next time she woke it was to hands on her.  Cherie let out a shriek of rage and lashed out.  There was a high pitched yelp of pain and Cherie followed up her scream with a shout.

“Keep your _filthy_ raider hands **off** me you raping bastard!”

She clutched at the bunk as she panted in impotent rage.  The blond bastard had gotten out of range and was curled up around his wounded parts gasping in pain and looking up at her with tear filled and pleading eyes.

There was a chuckle and one of the slimmer raiders, this one with long dark hair carefully approached.  His voice was teasing as they lilted through unfamiliar words.  The plaintive response from the bastard just had him shaking his head and laughing.

But then he was beside her asking politely if she needed to pee and if she was hungry or thirsty.  Cherie blinked in confusion. 

He was speaking in the lilting tones of Ynys gwyn.

She found herself meekly asking for tea.  And he brought her a cup of something that tasted faintly of citrus and was sweetened with honey.  He also gave her a bit of soft bread and a mild and creamy white cheese.  Then he helped her balance against the rolling motions of the boat and led her down to one end of the aisle.  At the end of it she saw a groggy Amie who being tended to by the bastard who had snatched her and a bucket in a strange pit that held it secure.

Her benefactor pointedly closed his eyes and gave her as much privacy as he could while she relieved herself.  Amie had clearly just been helped to this same bucket, and while it was mortifying, it did ease that discomfort.

Are you alright?”

Amie nodded, but didn't look like she was quite sure of what had happened.  But her answer made Cherie think she'd been sleeping and been dosed with the square mans horrible potion while asleep.

“I was sleeping, I don't remember coming here.  How did we get here, who are these men?”

“Raiders.  They came in and grabbed us and Mira and anything else their greedy paws could get to.”  Cherie shivered and flinched when the slim dark haired man gently wrapped a blanket around her.  He was clearly trying very hard to be kind and not push her.  Which made him an improvement over the blond idiot who kept trying to touch her.

They both jumped when another yelp sounded from down the narrow hallway.

Mira was scrambling to his feet and his kidnapper was half sprawled in a bunk across from him.

“Sami?”  The square man was moving to the big blond aide, and Cherie noticed, he was being very careful to not get between an angry Mira and his target. 

The plaintive tones of the big blond lummox made her snort in bitter amusement.

“She _bit_ me.”  Amie let out a weak snicker as Mira's captor squeaked and widened his eyes as he tried to back further into the bunk as Mira tried to serve him a kick.  But the floor under their feet lurched and sent Mira hard to his knees.

Cherie shared a look with Amie; these idiots didn't even realize Mira wasn't a girl.  Far be it from _her_ to enlighten them.

The squarer man chuckled and teased the other man.

“Ah, trust you to get a girl who should be a red head.  Hold her for me so I can dose her again.”  He was reaching for a pottery bottle even as the bigger man spluttered a protest.

“**Again**? **_Already_**?”  Cherie noticed that in spite of how unhappy the big man, Sami, sounded he was still moving to wrap his arms tightly around Mira, this time being very sure to get his arms.  He got a pained look on his face when Mira squirmed, even whimpered and whispered a plea in his ear that had Mira turning and staring at him in shock.

But that gave the square man his opening, and they were dosing Mira again.

Cherie frowned when she heard Amie's kidnapper trying to soothe her, but at least he wasn't trying to put his hands anywhere untoward.

“But, but what are they doing to h, her?”  Cherie bit her lip, clearly Amie had decided she wasn't going to help the idiots figure out Mira was a boy either.  And she suddenly had a horrible thought.  What if the raiders only wanted women?  What would they do to Mira when they found out he wasn't a girl?

The slender man with black hair answered Amie's frightened question.

“Just a potion to keep her calm.  So we don't have to fear you doing injury to yourselves.”  There was a flash of a smile as he looked at Cherie.  “Or to **_Us_**.  Torstig's kulta packs a mean kick.”

Cherie scowled blackly before snapping.

“Then Torstig needs to keep his greedy paws to himself.”

Cherie cursed in her head when she saw the square man and his blasted bottle coming back down the hallway.

“Lauri, Juke we need to get them back to their bunks.  That storm you saw is coming and we need to make sure they're safe.”

Cherie blinked. Make sure they'd be _safe_?  They had that much value to these bastards?  This time they were led back to their bunk and coaxed into drinking a more citrusy flavored tea, but under the citrus Cherie could taste a bitterness not even the honey could completely hide.  She lay back down and let the dark man and his spiky haired shadow cover her back up. She wondered at the straps they tied over his shoulders, hips and just behind her knees, but was too far gone to articulate the questions.  Vaguely she could hear a male voice singing, and let the cadence of unfamiliar words lull her to sleep.

~0~

Cherie thought she'd awakened again and been fed and dosed with the bitter potion again but it was so vague she wasn't sure.

She knew she was awake now though, and the slim dark haired man was right at her side, first to undo the straps holding her into the bunk, then to help her down the hall to the bucket so she could reliever the ache in her bladder.  Then he gently herded her back, past where Mira lay still sleeping and past where the menace lay sleeping like the dead, even where Amie's kidnapper lay looking like he'd been felled like a tree.  Then she was going up the steep steps in to bright sunlight and being gently walked over a deck to where Amie was curled up under a woolen blanket at the very front of the big boat.

Then he was gone and back again with a cup of water and a bit of flat bread and a hard yellowish cheese.

This isn't the bread Cook made anymore,” Cherie observed.  It was flavorful, but not the light and soft bread Cook made.

“It isn't the soft cheese either, but that wasn't ours.”

“No telling who they stole it from.”

“Traded for,” corrected one of the men close to them.  He was short, shorter than she was even, and like many of the men they'd seen so far had dark hair.  His was so black it had little blue highlights in it and was very short on the sides and very long spiked wildly on the top and back.  He had bright blue eyes and grinned cheerfully at them as he flopped on his bottom and kicked his legs out in front of himself.  “We traded for that, it's like the cheese my Jyrki's äiti makes just it comes from goats not sheep or cattle.”

They shared a blank look before Amie hazarded a question.

“What's a Jyrki?”

The question made the man beam at them in a way that had Cherie feeling a bit uncomfortable.  Then he pointed down the length of the boat to a very tall man with his black hair tied neatly back in a tail talking to a big bear like man with red hair and a huge fluffy red beard.

“That's my Jyrki; the bear man beside him is Wulf.”  He then went on to name each man on deck.  The one who could talk to them was Julian, his shadow was Yu.  The square man was Atti, and was their Healer, something that the little man seemed terribly proud of. Then he named himself, Jussi and blinked those bright blue eyes at them.

Cherie blinked, then reluctantly named herself and then Amie.  They shared a long look and wondered why this man, Jussi was taking such a proud tone when speaking of 'his' Jyrki.  From the stamp of their feature they weren't related to each other.

Then Cherie stifled a squeak as a huge black bird dropped out of the sky to land by Amie's knee and steal the bit of cheese lying neglected on her knee.  The bird was enormous, easily twice the size of the raven son the Island.

Jussi swatted playfully at the great bird.

“Ewie, thief!  Your bonded is below sleeping the sleep of the righteously exhausted and we fed you and your brother’s the innards of the sheep that will be today’s lunch.  You can't already be hungry, glutton.”  The words were full of affection and the bird didn't do more than hop a bit and spread his wing in an odd avian shrug before gronking and cocking his head to show off his large yellow eyes.  Any of the Islands ravens would have reacted to the insult by pecking, at the very least.  This bird didn't seem to care.

A moment later and Cherie was blinking at Amie's captor as he came boiling up out of the hatch, he's stopped to let another of the great birds land on his arm, and this one sidled up his arm to settle on his shoulder and preen a break full of hair.

“Why do Ewie and Hwurr tell me I need to look out for my armas?”  The tone was pointed and he braced his hands on his hips as he half scowled down at Jussi.

Jussi just leaned back on his hands and grinned impudently up.  Cherie closed her eyes for a moment, this man was mischief incarnate.

“I was just making sure the pretties knew our names.  Maybe then we won't have to tend to our healer after Torstig pisses his treasure off again.”

Cherie flushed in a mix of irritation and embarrassment.

“Then he needs to get out of the way and not _help_ that bloody bastard.”

A shockingly deep voice spoke up.

“Atti is our Healer.  It is in his nature, just as it is in Sami's, to tend to people.” The mild tone turned chiding. “Jussi, stop flirting.”

Jussi's Jyrki had intensely _blue_, blue eyes as he looked down at Jussi as he tried to act innocent.  Something told Cherie even if he was innocent he'd still be thought guilty from how he acted.

“I wasn't flirting.”

The sigh was speaking and suddenly the big man was moving and had Jussi over his shoulder with nothing but a yelp from the smaller man. Cherie watched in shock as Jyrki simply carried the smaller man off and down the steps to the floor with the bunks.  Then she groaned as a familiar, annoying head of blond hair popped up and the man attached to it came bounding over.

Cherie vented a bit of frustration by taking a swipe at his balls with her shackled hands, fully intent on sending him to his knees.

She missed, but only because he jumped back and lost his footing to land on his hands and knees to the clear amusement of his fellows.

“What was that for?  I just wanted a hug and a cuddle.”

“Go cuddle a fish.”

Cherie was faintly aware of Amie's captor asking if she was well, and whatever her friend answered had him running for tea and a warmer blanket.

He might be a thieving bastard of a Viking, but at least he was trying to take care of Amie.  But then she had her menace back and this time she took a swipe at his head. He ducked again and was up behind her trying to cuddle, fondling his hands over her body in ways that if he hadn't _kidnapped her_ might have been pleasant.  Cherie snarled and swung an elbow at him.

This time he backed off and suddenly Mira was between them hissing in irritation at the menace.  He was steady on the decking, but he'd also been the one who crossed the channel between the temple island and the larger one where they kept sheep.  Amie had gotten sick from the motions of the small boat and Cherie didn't like how stupid the sheep were.

Mira's captor looked pained, and swept up to catch Mira tightly in his arms, pulling Mira so close he didn't get the chance to swing his bound hands at his captor's head before they were pressed tightly into the blasted man's broad chest.

A moment later and he was flat on his ass on the deck, but he didn't let go.  With a little help he got Mira twisted around so Mira's back was tight to his chest.  A few soft pleas and Mira was reluctantly eating anything that the slender man, Julian she reminded herself, held to his lips.  But his eyes mutely promised Cherie's menace a world of pain the instant he as free.

Apparently several of the men saw the glares and read them correctly, because as soon as Mira had been fed his portion they dosed him with the potion in the pottery bottle again and the big man, Sami, was cradling Mira's sleeping form in his arms.

Cherie's menace was back, and this time by pure luck she landed a blow to the groin and sent him to the deck whimpering and clutching his abused manhood.

“And keep your hands to yourself!”

What she didn't understand was why the idiot kept trying.  She also didn't understand the look of longing on Sami's face as he stroked wisps of silver hair out of Mira's sleeping face.

Then she focused on something Amie's captor said.

“I would make you my wife.  Torstig and Sami would wed your sisters.”  There was a little shrug that didn't even ruffle the feathers of the bird still sitting on his shoulder.

“Then why steal us?  Why not go to Mother and ask?”  The blank look on his face told her that the idea of just asking had never even crossed his mind.

“We always steal our wives.  It's how we show we are serious.  We set up a place, goods, fields and cattle, everything for a family, only then will we go and steal the one the gods have set for us to marry.”

“I don't believe you.”  Cherie quirked a corner of her mouth up, she wasn't sure she believed him either.

That got a resigned sigh.

“No, southern girls never do.  I don't know why your people don't do _civilized_ raiding.”

There was such a thing?

~0~

Cherie considered what she and Amie and Mira had learned and fingered the eagles on her torc.  Lauri was very intent on winning Amie.  And other than the fact he'd stolen her he was doing reasonably well.  Torstig had all the earnest eagerness of a little boy and absolutely **_no_** subtlety at all.

Amie had finally succumbed to Lauri's gentle pressure and he'd been wearing a torc that matched her ravens proudly for over a week.  He'd also been waking their end of the longhouse by loving Amie awake every morning.  And his actions tended to set the other couples off and it made Torstig an absolute menace.  Cherie had lost count of how many times he'd tried sneaking into bed with her and had to be dumped out.

Suddenly she knew why Mira had dumped filthy wash water over Juha's head and then followed it up with the copper basin and a sound thumping with a spoon.

These blasted men were persistence incarnate.  But she did have to admit having Torstig get between her and the big man who'd come trading and seemed to think she was part of the goods on offer had been something of a relief.  He'd backed down readily enough, but Cherie had still been unsettled enough that she was grateful for Torstig being a menace and staying very close to her until that group had left.

Then she slipped and let the bastard kiss her.

Then she'd been sunk, because then the fantasies she used when she crept away to her hidden place on the river to pleasure herself all featured _him_.

And then she'd been truly hung for a sheep because he followed her and caught her.

She'd nearly screamed when she felt his hands on her hips, but then was arching under him as he put his mouth on her.  She'd never felt anything quite like it as Torstig moaned, licked, sucked and bit until Cherie came under him.  Only after she'd come did he move up and beg for relief.

She'd spread her leg a little and he'd sobbed in need as he'd slid in.

It hurt a little but he tried so hard to make her feel good that it helped.  Cherie had been struggling with the need to come when he started begging again, pleading for her to let go so he could.

And the look in his eyes had been her undoing.

She'd come screaming his name.

After that it had been hard to push him away.  He'd been bringing her bread and tea in the mornings, offering to comb out her hair, though he was hopeless at braiding it up and bringing her other little things.  He also would snuggle into her given even the smallest opening.

She stopped dumping him out of the bed at night and he snuggled her close.

His reaction to her setting the torc with eagles around his neck wasn't quite what she expected, but at least they hadn't been in public.  He'd hugged her so tightly it had taken her breath away, spun her in circles and then laid her down in the sweet grasses of the meadow and loved her until she screamed.

Then Mira had slipped up.

Cherie had bit her lip and watched as the Holding listened to him tell his story, and she knew how badly he hated telling it.  But she'd been surprised; there were no mutters about 'bad blood' just quiet nods of understanding and acceptance.  And Sami just held him.  Held him and teased him about having Old woman's hair.  And Sami was as bad about wanting to touch Mira's hair as Torstig was about touching hers.

If she hadn't seen Sami's father and two married brothers doing the same thing with their wives she'd have wondered about it.

But all of them seemed to take great joy in combing their wives hair and showering them with presents.

Cherie had to snicker when she saw how frustrated Sami got with Mira's habit of dressing plainly and wearing no ornaments but the rings that held his hair.  He'd gotten his ears pierced when she and Amie had, mostly on a dare, but try as Sami might he wouldn't wear the pretty ornaments Sami got for him. 

He wore the jade ring that Sami's mother had given him.  But that was less ornament than practical; it was the same sort of thing all the Holding women who used a bow wore.  Even a few of the thralls wore them, made of polished horn rather than stone.  And the bow seemed to be almost universally a woman's weapon.  But Freyja had started teaching Mira the bow after he'd taken down a raider with a sling.  Torstig had been beside himself after that.  If anything like it happened again he had begged her to not wait and see what happened to him, but to run.

Torstig said he could live with being a cripple for the rest of his life.  But he couldn't live without her.  And Lauri's reaction had been telling he'd told Mira any favor he wished, short of killing Sami in his sleep, was his.

Mira had just blinked at him.  Something that had Cherie exchanging a look with Amie.

Sometimes Mira could be such a **boy**.

~0~

When winter rolled around again the men went raiding.  Cherie felt strange standing by Amie and the other wives on the strange great dock that only ever seemed to get used by the fishing boats and watching as the three Dragons sailed away.  Nikki and Jyrki had made sure Mira was aboard, but she'd love to be a shadow in the room when Sami learned.

There was a forth Dragon pulled up on the beach, but it was a trading vessel and would be staying for part of the winter after it had finished its rounds.

Cherie had to admit she liked the men aboard.  Even if she'd been warned to not let Jan anywhere near any charcoal, sulfur and saltpeter.  She'd been warned both by Uther and Wulf and by the Hun who seemed to be in charge, so clearly the man could cause a huge amount of trouble with such simple things.

Torstig had traded Linke for a tunic of heavy silk for her, saying the deep blue color made her eyes glow, and he traded for a set of shell and gold combs studded with little polished domes of amber when he'd seen her trying to keep the shorter bits out of her eyes.

Lauri had traded of a length of a similar silk in scarlet, but that had gone on their bed, and Cherie had doubts about it even being made up as a tunic.

When had Torstig gone from a menace to being missed?

~0~

The boats returned.  And came back laden with livestock, salt, spices, silks and fine cotton from the Orient.  It also came with a wounded Mira and a worry sick Sami.

Two of the war band had dumped a weary Lauri on his ass at Amie's feet and Risto had dragged Torstig to drop him on his butt at hers.  And Cherie had fussed at Toro for working past his strength until he'd swept her up into his arms and kissed her silent.

Freyja showed them that the Goddess' healing happened here.  Atti stripped to his trews and did a Calling of the earth to purge the poisons building in Mira's blood.  It took Wulf to keep Sami from bolting into the center of the circle and spoiling the Working.

But the way he had run to Mira when the Working was done was a comfort to her heart.

Mira deserved to be loved for himself.

Spring came and went.  Summer days passed quickly and harvest was upon them again when Cherie heard Sami begging again for Mira to wear some of the fine things he kept bringing him.

Mira was being stubborn about not wearing anything that could be spoiled by work.  And given he'd begun taking over some of the messier jobs for Freyja that was a very real concern.

But Sami still begged.  And Cherie blinked when something he said registered.

Sami wanted Mira dressed to show how valued he was.  That if he wasn't dressed well someone else might try and steal Mira, not that he'd go, or even think Freyja had raised an ill mannered and ungrateful wretch of a son who neglected his spouse.

Suddenly that made a number of things she'd seen make a _lot_ more sense.  It made Torstig's stealing of her old belt and replacing it with a finer leather one with an ornate silver buckle make a _lot_ more sense.  It made the silver needle case and fine steel needles more than just a practical gift.

Toro was showing her off.  Dressing her up in fine linen, silk and wool, adorning her in silver and gold and jewels and looking at any man who came into the Holding and silently going 'see that?  She's _mine_.'  And just by the act of dressing her up he showed how much value she had to him, and thus to the Holding.

Lauri did something similar with Amie.  He buried her in fine cloth as well, with colors she loved and he braided golden ornaments and strings of amber and garnet into her braid before confining it in gold rings.  He'd even had one of his birds stay with her if he wasn't off raiding. 

Simply having Ewie perched nearby or cuddling up in her lap for treats and petting had made several visiting warriors gulp and give her a wider berth and far more respectful treatment.  And Cherie had noticed there were several more of the huge birds lurking around.

But by fall harvest she'd also noticed Amie wasn't having issues with her cycles and suspected she might be pregnant.  But Cherie knew she was late as well, given how their men took pleasure in their shared beds it wasn't really surprising.

When Amie fainted a group of visitors got to see Lauri all but panic.  A few had grumbled over the implied snub, but then all had lost their irritation when Lauri had asked his birds and gotten a trio of rude gronks and Hwurr drawing something in the dirt at Lauri's knee that had him scooping Amie up in his arms and whooping like a lunatic.

It took Ylsa and Freyja both scolding him for making a pregnant woman dizzy to get him to settle down and set Amie back down on a bench by the main fire pit

After that the men had all settled in with stories of how they'd reacted to their wives telling them of their first pregnancies.

Nikki had sheepishly confessed to fainting right there in the surf and that if his brothers hadn't dragged him upright that he might well have drowned on the spot.

It made her wonder what Toro's reaction would be if she really was pregnant.

~0~

He suspected long before she told him.  But like the rest of the war band had sat there with eager faces as Lauri threw the bones and asked his birds what sex his firstborn would be.

The reaction to the birds proclaiming a boy made Cherie roll her eyes.

Men could be so predictable.

~0~

Seeing the lot of merry idiots off for another round of winter raids left her with mixed feelings.

On the one hand she was glad to get the menaces out from underfoot.  Toro was going to get strangled if he didn't stop fussing at her and Lauri had already been chased from the long house by an indignant Amie only to have to come right back when she collapsed in tears.  He took his pummeling with a stoicism that made the single men laugh and the married ones wince.  The ones with children in particular winced and gave Lauri sympathetic looks.

Then once the idiots were off trading and looting their way down the coastlines of who knew where and they were settled in Amie went into labor.

And Cherie was fully convinced she didn't want to have to go through any of it.

All the men were summarily banished from the longhouse; even down to Thor, the male cat who normally slept curled up on Amie's bed.

It seemed like it was days of Amie straining, panting and screaming before her son was born.  After that it seemed to take no time at all for her daughter to arrive.

But then another problem lifted its head.

Amie wasn't producing milk like she needed to.

Ylsa and Freyja searched the Holding and found two women nursing babies who were willing to help with the newborns. So that problem at least was settled fairly easily.

They had a few days of quiet to get back to normal and the call of 'sail' went up.

Cherie went out to see, as they'd had a call of 'sail' only the day before Amie gave birth and that had been Linke and his crew of merry lunatics come to spend part of the winter.

She suspected Gustav would stay once they moved on in spring, but maybe not.  She had no idea if the short blond had been hit with a Calling or not, he seemed rather calm about impending fatherhood and nothing Tahvo did seemed to faze him.

She didn't expect Lauri to almost fall off the dock in shock when she told him he was the father of twins. Him bolting to get to Amie's side at least was proper.  But then Torstig had to be an idiot and carry her bodily back to the longhouse.  There he fluttered and fussed until Amie's son cried.

Then he was a big and brave man and fainted dead away.

Cherie was in full agreement with the amused and exasperated chorus of '**_men_**.'

~0~

A few days later when she went into labor her opinion of men was rather less charitable.

She _hurt_.

The potions that had helped Amie didn't help her and Ylsa and Freyja seemed to have to be doing more than they had for Amie.

Mira's kept coming in and out and the woman Atti had brought home seemed to be constantly humming.  If it hadn't given her something else to focus on as she tried to pass cart, horse and load out of her body she would have screamed at the woman to shut up and go away.

Torstig had tried to get in to see her.  And she'd been all for it.

Then she could rip his dick off and _feed_ it to him for doing this to her.

She vented her fury on her absent spouse and screamed.  It felt like she was being rent in two.

Cherie managed to scream once more then finally blessed relief, she fell back and let Tash's humming soothe her into sleep.

~0~

She roused when Torstig touched her.

He looked so frightened and stuttered when he asked after their child.  Ylsa looked oddly sober when she laid the little wrapped bundle in Cherie's arms.

“You have a son, Skald.  But there will be no others from your wife.”

Cherie blinked but then was captivated by the tiny head of pale red gold hair her son sported.  He didn't seem at all bothered by the fuss his coming into the world had caused.

Torstig just seemed relieved she was all right.

~0~

After a month she wanted to slap the man stupid.  Little Toivo was being almost no fuss at all.  Unlike little Mikko and his sister Elise's ravens.  He'd eat, burp, mess and sleep, and in the short times he was awake would look out at the world with curious blue eyes.  Even the little ones the war band brought back made more fuss in the night.

Torstig fussed over her, held her and brought her things.  He'd sleep cuddled up tight behind her.  But after the third week and Ylsa pronouncing her as healed as she was going to get he still wasn't trying to touch her any other way.

And when she could hear Amie getting loved by Lauri it got to be a bit much.

She'd handed her boy over to Mira for minding and went hunting her husband.

Sami saw the look in her eye and just mutely pointed her in the proper direction.  She heard another man ask Atti why he wasn't stopping her and had to snort at his wry comment that getting between her and Toro was an invitation to pain and he had more important things to do that day than writhe in the dirt as he tried to breathe and figure out if his parts were all still attached.

She found the idiot helping repair a saddle and patiently waited until he'd set the hide knife down before she pounced and seized him by his hair.

“You, bed, _now_.”

Torstig yelped and flailed to his feet as she turned on her heel and all but dragged him back to the longhouse.

The rest of them could laugh all they liked.  She wanted her husband back damnit!

~0~

Mira snickered when he saw Torstig get all but thrown onto his own bed and pounced.  He just rose and carried a sleeping Toivo out so his father's moans and screams didn't disturb him.  When the boy woke he'd be distracted for a while by chewing on Mira's hair ring, or by playing with the dragons on the ends of his torc.

~0~

They had guests at Midsummer.

Fortunately the old Skald had a sense of humor.  Because Cherie had gone stalking Torstig again and this time had caught him in one of the meadows above the Holding.  This time she'd been all out of patience and yanked Toro's trews down, tripped him to the ground and straddled him.  He'd yelped, protested he didn't want to hurt her and then was screaming as she rode him hard.

She'd looked up and found a circle of amused faces surrounding them and gone terribly red faced.

Torstig had whimpered and weakly hailed the old man.  Then he'd gone redder than Amie's favorite tunic when the old man had teased him about remembering wives had needs and that a wise husband took good care of those needs.

The chiding lecture he gave Torstig as they walked back down to the Holding was horribly amusing.  And if she hadn't been caught riding him it would have been tremendously funny to watch him squirm.

~0~

Cherie had watched with her heart in her throat as one of the Skalds men backhanded Mira when he stepped between the old man and Amie's twins.

Sami had to be tackled flat and pinned to the ground, but it didn't look to be needed.

Firstly the Skald checked his man and silently chided him; secondly the man had locked gazes with Mira and gone white.

But that mess had gotten Mira out of his un-bleached linen's and wool's and into the colors of the clothing that had come back when they brought Morgan and Tash home.

Cherie liked Tash very much, as did Amie, she had a dry sense of humor and as she settled in and began to accept Atti's suit as genuine she began to relax.

When the second set of fools came in and had one of their number insult Mira, Tash had muttered later about men not learning.

One had protested he learned just fine, and then Tash led him on a merry verbal chase of wits that left him gaping.

His brother grumbled about clucking hens and Atti had laughed at that as he smiled proudly at Tash and made a comment about 'what a hen to have.'

The joking promptly went rather lewd as the men boasted about their wives.

Cherie shared a look with Amie and had to laugh as Amie rolled her eyes.

Their men could be such boys.

~0~

Midwinter was odd. She'd seen other placed drawing lots to act as the goddess' intermediary at festivals before, but here they had so many more gods it got a bit confusing. And that was before they'd had one particular lot not come up with any of the eligible women.

But had come up the instant Mira put his hands in the sack.

Mira had just shrugged it off and gone back to amusing the baby in his lap.  Sami had been a big brave man and fainted on the spot.

Cherie had an uneasy feeling about that, but still had to smile at Sami curling up by Mira's side and playing his kantele to amuse them both.

Last winter she hadn't seen the odd harp like instruments nearly as much, this winter it seemed like every man over the age of ten had one.  But music made tedious tasks like carding and spinning wool go much faster, and provided a nice backdrop to the work songs the weavers sang.

Work songs she noticed that were turned to all sorts of things, even the decorating of the huge log the men had dragged into the center of the common between the longhouses.

The firing ceremony was explained to her, and the fact that all fires but one bucket of coals were put out made her a bit uneasy.  Annekke was quick to reassure her that there were flints and steel around, so restarting a fire wouldn't be difficult, just having the coals fail to catch was rather ill omened.

So Cherie bit her lip and quietly prayed as the lamps were put out one by one, and the hearth fires doused and stirred to be sure they were out before a new bed of tinder was laid in each one.

Torstig wrapped her with a heavy cloak and made sure Toivo was well wrapped before he settled her in a seat by Amy with her two little ones tucked in a warmly covered willow basket between her and Lauri.

She had to stifle a giggle when she saw Sami wrapping Mira in a particularly nice fur lined cloak and getting scolded for not wearing his mittens.

Then the last bucket of coals was placed between Mira's feet and to Cherie's surprise Ylsa began singing a creation song.  Last midwinter she'd slept through everything and Amie hadn't been in much of a position to care, she'd been trying to ignore how badly her back ached. She'd told Cherie about how Iriet's stand in had flirted with Othar's and other than that said things hadn't been remarkable.  But last year it had been clear, this year it was overcast.

This year was rather different.

Cherie shivered a little at how eerie the kantele sounded in the dark and at how strange it made Lauri's voice sound.

Then Sami stood up, and Cherie gulped, Sami wasn't Sami, his eyes were different, almost glowing in the darkness and his voice was deeper, more booming and gruff.  Cherie stifled a squeak when he put out a hand and one of the ravens that had been lurking about hopped up onto it and shuffled his way up to Sami's shoulder to preen hair that was to bright a gold to be Sami's own.

Then Atti stood up and Cherie watched wide eyed as his hair slithered out from its usual short and neat tail, she stuffed her fist in her mouth as it braided itself up and the voice coming from Atti's mouth ground out like so many heavy stones rolling in the river bed in a flood.

Torstig chortled and bounded over, calling Atti 'brother' in a way he never had before and Cherie felt Amie stiffen when Torstig turned.

His eyes weren't their normal blue green, one glowed blue, the other green in the darkness.

The song continued; and Cherie had to bite her lip when Tash stood up and served Atti a swift kick and scolded him in a voice that was far higher than Tash's own.  The wince and pained sigh when Atti addressed her as 'wife' was priceless.  And enough like his normal reaction to be almost normal.

When the tale spoke of the Trickster stealing fire for men to keep them warm in the Long Dark Cherie nodded then she gasped as Mira rose and at how sharply he yanked Sami's ear when he tried to stop him pouring the coals over the prepared log.

Mira's short hair had grown out, and was down past his knees unbound.  Sami grumbled but meekly stepped back as Mira moved to pour the coals out over the log.  And the log caught like it had been soaked in pitch or earth tar.

Torstig let out a whoop of delight and dove over the flames in a way that made her gasp in fright until he came tumbling out the other side completely untouched by the flames.  Then he pounced her with all the glee and energy he'd had when he'd first stolen her, but this time Cherie scolded him for frightening her half to death.

More voices joined in as the song ended and Cherie blinked when the women who'd had children since the last festival lined up for Sami and Mira to bless.  Amie had said it had happened last year, so it must be a normal thing.

But then Sami had grumbled at Elisa and took a hard elbow to the ribs and a swat to the head from Mira.  Sami _adored_ Elisa, would cuddle her in his arms any time Amie, Lauri and Mira would let him, so his behavior was more than odd.

She shared a look with Amie, they'd ask in the morning.

~0~

Cherie growled in frustration, Torstig was being a menace.  He'd pounced her as soon as she'd gotten into bed and had her, then rolled her over and had her again where she'd been screaming his name and pulling his hair.  Then he'd grinned at her and slithered down to make her scream again as he sucked and licked and bit.  When he moved up and mounted her **again** she groped for the scarf he'd tied to a bolt securely sunk in their bed and rolled him over on his back.

The grin she got was so like her Torstig that all she could do was smile as she moved his arms up and pounced to tie them securely.

Predictably he squealed and squirmed, but stilled as soon as she put her hands on his hips and blew over his still erect cock.

Then she set about making him squirm for other reasons.

And after he came, finally he lay still and panted as she snuggled into his chest.

Cherie didn't remember falling asleep.

~0~

Cherie winced a little, it hurt a bit to close her legs and Torstig was still sleeping the sleep of the dead.  She sighed and untied his wrists, but he didn't even twitch.

Cherie shook her head and carefully got up to dress and feed Toivo, who was just starting to move around.

She'd eaten, fed and changed her son and listened in on Sami and Lauri's conversation.  She'd snorted at Lauri's wry comments about Amie planning to do to him some of what Mira had done to Sami and shaken her head at how neither of them remembered how Sami had gotten the long scratches down his back.

Then she head Torstig stirring and had to stifle a bark of laughter as his plaintive words.

“Othar's beard, what did I _drink_ last night?”

Cherie giggled as she brought him his morning tea and giggled again when he blinked blearily at the marks on his wrists and hissed as he tried to stand.

“What did I do last night?”

“The same thing you do every night silly, just with more vigor.”

Torstig grimaced, finished his tea and dragged her back to bed.

~0~

Cherie shook her head as Atti tried again to get Tash to rest.  You'd think the man had never dealt with a pregnant woman before.

Then again, none of those women had been **_his_**_ wife_, so maybe it was understandable.

Poor idiot.  If he kept at things Tash might just kill him.

From the looks of things Atti would be getting his hair grabbed right about, now.  Cherie grinned as Tash loudly informed her husband she was **not** an invalid, she was _just_ pregnant and he could damn well go bugger himself.  Then she served him a quick kick to the shin and stomped off while he was clutching the injured limb.

She snickered when Sami let out a long low sigh and gave Mira a look of relief mixed with wistfulness.

Men could be such idiots.

~0~

Cherie was actually frightened when Lauri sent his birds up looking for Sami and Mira. Torstig had gone to check with Iason and come back in an almighty hurry.

The lodge was in disarray, and not from Sami not allowing Mira to pick up, someone had come in and taken them.  And from the blood on a bit of kindling at least one of them had been hurt.

Yu had gone out where Lauri's ravens hinted Sami and Mira's captors had gone and Torstig was helping collect the war band up together.

She didn't understand why they needed the full band to thump a few idiots for taking her friend, but then Aethar explained and she had to sit down she was so frightened.

At midsummer a group of women had petitioned the council of elders.  They'd wanted Mira to begat children on them.

That alone was absurd; Mira didn't like girls that way.  In all the time Cherie had known him never once had she seen Mira hard around a woman.  Not even with his eyes closed and thinking hard about his Dreaming.  He just couldn't function that way.

The council had sent them away with a firm 'no' and a reminder that Sami and Mira were Called and Bound, so it was likely neither could function for anyone other than their beloved.

It hadn't set well with the women.

And according to Aethar, Lauri's birds had seen several of those women around Sami and Mira.  They didn't want the women to try killing their captives as a way of hiding their crime.

~0~

Jyrki came in at a sprint two days after the war band had left and gone right to Freyja's knee to pant out his message.  Freyja had stiffened and collected the best archers, and Cherie felt a strange mix of fear and pride that she was one of the ones who was going to their hearth places in the longhouses to collect up her bow and the handful of lethally nasty man hunting arrows.

The little bit of time it took for all of them to get ready was enough time for Jyrki to have partly gotten his wind back so he could lead them to where the war band was stuck outside a set of wards.

Cherie gulped a little and bit her lip when they crept up behind Atti, where they could see what was happening in the grove below. 

Mira was strapped to a strange T shaped table and had a woman riding him.  And from the way his arms where straining he was desperate to get her off him.  Mira let out a little cry of negation and jerked, then the woman climbed off him and walked away.  An older one stepped up and began wiping Mira down like he was nothing more than a horse come in lathered from a long run.

Freyja jerked her chin and they spread out, nocking their first arrows.

Cherie muttered under her breath and loosed just as Freyja did.

The old hag dropped, as did several other women in the clearing.  Freyja moved and Cherie started to follow but was caught by Torstig, who mutely begged her not to go.

The Julian let out a yelp and half fell into the clearing.

Not even a breath later and the whole war band was streaming in to deal with the mess.

~0~

Cherie wrapped a blanket around where Sami was huddled in a shaking tangle of limbs in the horrible makeshift of a cell.

Behind her she could hear Mira shakily asking if Sami was alright, so she turned and called back that he was shaky but looked alright.

It was a lie.

Sami looked more than shaken, he's lost weight and couldn't stand unassisted, his hands shook like an old man afflicted with a terrible palsy.

Carefully Iason and Torstig moved Sami out where he could clutch Mira tightly.

Freyja was asking Atti if he could purge the poisons and Cherie stared as Atti settled and did whatever it was he normally did when he was preparing to heal.

He yelped, glowed almost white for a moment and went rigid.  The glow built and flowed over Sami and Mira and then went out, like someone blowing out a candle.

Then Atti fell over like a felled tree.

Cherie took a bit of vindictive glee in helping lock the bitches into makeshift wooden stocks for the hike back to the Holding.

~0~

Cherie wanted to kill someone, slowly.

Bad enough they had twenty very unwelcome guests to deal with until the council collected to judge them, but Tash suspected several were pregnant.

If Sami and Mira hadn't already begun to recover, even if they couldn't stand to be out of each other sight, she'd have been all for dumping the lot of them in the sea.

At least she didn't have to feed the bitches.

~0~

Watching Sami hold Mira tight after Ylsa told them the news had hurt a little.  **_Six_** children?  She had fits coping with **_one_**, and Toivo was a sweet natured child.

It just meant they had to keep a close eye on them, so they didn't have another one hang herself.

~0~

The ones that weren't pregnant were loaded onto a fishing boat that almost couldn't float its way out to sea and a few archers shot it with fire arrows until it was burning properly. 

Cherie was a little disappointed she hadn't drawn a lot to be one of the shooters.  She watched as most of the bitched went over the side and drowned and listened as Lauri and Torstig sang their twisted and selfish souls to rest.

Two of the pregnant ones had miscarried and were on that boat, a third had bled to death when something had torn loose.

That left three, three women who were being waited on hand and foot and watched carefully to keep them from doing anything stupid.

~0~

Tash almost gelded Atti when she went into labor.  And in spite of her serving him a kick to the balls that had lifted him off the ground the idiot kept trying to get in the longhouse to be with her.

It took four men to keep him mostly in the yard while Tash screamed, swore and labored to deliver her son.  And when Tash stopped screaming and the child began wailing nothing could stop him from charging to Tash's side.

The look of shock and wonder on Atti's face as he reached for his wife and son made Cherie smile.  She had to duck her head when she heard Atti's awed voice.

“He's, he's so tiny.”

Ylsa let out a snort and Cherie grinned.

“You were that small once.  And for all he's early you wouldn't know it.”

Atti clearly wanted to touch but was afraid to.

Ylsa let out another rude noise and directed the girls in putting the longhouse back in order.

“Likely Tash was in labor last night, her delivery was very fast.  Your little one wanted to be here very much to be in such a hurry.

Atti carefully wrapped an arm around Tash's shoulders and hugged her as he kissed her face and hair.

“He's, he's just so tiny.”

Tash sounded tired but pleased when she answered.

“Otto will get bigger.”

“Otto?” Atti asked in confusion.

“Otto, for my father.”

“Otto,” whispered Atti and he carefully cuddled them both close.

Cherie sighed quietly as she helped put things back in order.

Soon enough he'd be snatching himself bald at the antics little boys could get into.

~0~

Cherie swore in frustration. They had to keep someone in the cells with the last two. 

One had gone into labor and managed to hide it until it was too late to do anything.

Tash had cut open her belly to try and save the child but had found only a cold, blue baby girl who wouldn't revive no matter what she did.

Two more left, it couldn't be long now.

~0~

The next one was breech, but this time Tash was able to save the baby.  The mother was a lost cause; she was just bleeding too much.  Thank the goddess they had several midwives, three women in labor at once was more than a bit chaotic.

The look on Mira's face when Tash laid the wailing little bundle in his arms was priceless.  But as if he knew where he was the little one stopped screaming the instant Mira's hands touched him.  A few moments later and Sami came up at a dead run from the field he'd been helping to plow and plant.  He skidded to a halt and dropped to his knees in the dirt and mud by Mira's feet and stared down into the red, squashed face of their son.

“The mother?”

Atti just shook his head and went back inside to help with the other two women.  This little one's mother had been all but dead when Tash had cut her open to free her son.  And strangely she'd smiled to see him pulled free.

Cherie watched as Sami and Mira looked utterly captivated as the little one squinched his little face up and let out a yowl of protest. He was likely hungry, or cold.

“Toumas.”

Sami nodded mutely still staring at the baby.

Cherie huffed.  At least Mira was naming the poor thing for the man who had been their contact with the outside world when they'd lived on Ynys gwyn.  He'd been a decent sort, and called Mother 'sister.'

~0~

Four days later and the last one went into labor, normal labor this time.

Sami paced and fretted when Mira amused Toumas.  Amie had made her giggle when she'd called Sami's fretful movements 'the fatherhood dance', but given how many men she'd seen doing something similar when their wives were in labor she couldn't call it anything else now.

The poor stupid girl struggled and screamed.

Then the screaming stopped and Cherie watched as Sami held his breath and learned he couldn't hold his breath that long.

The thin wail of a baby had his face lighting up and Sami was reaching even as Tash came out.

“Another boy.  All the ones who miscarried had girls, sounds to me like your goddess is making a rather bloody point.”

Cherie snorted.  Maybe she was ensuring the bitches desire to continue the bloodline through girls was thwarted.

Then again, with two boys, if they lived to adulthood the bloodline would get spread far and wide, Cherie mused.

She had to smile though as Sami carried his younger son over to meet his other father and older brother.

A quick scan of the courtyard and she found her husband and son, and her hand flew to her mouth in surprise.

Torstig had a wide delighted grin on his face as his hand hovered to either side of Toivo.

Her baby was walking.


End file.
